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CCEHUGHT DEPOSIt 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM; 

COMPRISING A COLLECTION OF 

PRO VERBS, MAXIMS AND ETHICAL 
SENTENCES, 

FOR THE GUIDANCE OF ALL CLASSES 
OF MEN. 



COLLECTED AND ARRANGED 

7 

Rev. A. N. COLEMAN. 



"Precepts or maxims are of great weight ; and 
a few useful ones at hand do more toward a happy 
life, than whole volumes that we know not where 
to find. — Seneca. 



New York. 
Published by the Compiler, 1490 Lexington Ave. 



TWO COPIES RECEIVED 




,.< 



i^cA 



1 0432 

Copyright, 1897, 
By Rev. A. N. COLEMAN. 



D. A. HUEBSCH & CO. 

PRINTER8 

31 RO8E STREET 

NEW YORK 



TO 

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, 

A RACE LIBERAL AND GENEROUS 

IN THOUGHT AND IN DEED, 

THIS VOLUME IS, 

IN TOKEN OF THE TRUEST ESTEEM, 

RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 

BY 

THE COMPILER. 



INTRODUCTION. 

Of the variety of books of this nature 
that are published most of them are filled 
with trivial matter, that affords little in- 
struction or improvement. In this volume 
it is intended that nothing should find a 
place that is not fitted to improve the in- 
tellect or the heart, or both — nothing that 
will not tend to make the reader both wiser 
and better. 

The proverbs, maxims and ethical sen- 
tences contained in this volume are the best 
thoughts of the best authors. Many of 
them are real pearls of beauty and of worth, 
showing how deeply and thoroughly they 
studied the problem of life, and the reader 
will find many a gem of thought, many a 
wise saying, spoken by wise men. The 



reader will also readily perceive that they 
are free from all sectarian bias; and may 
be read by all classes of men, irrespective 
of creed or faith. 

And, as "Proverbial wisdom teaches 
more in one hour than a large volume of 
morality in a season," I cannot but hope 
that good result will follow. 

May this little volume be judged indul- 
gently, and meet with favorable reception; 
and may these gleanings be read with de- 
light and profit. 

A. N. COLEMAN. 
New York, March, 1897. 



CONTENTS 



Chapter. Page. 
I. CHARITY AND BENEFICENCE... 9 


II. THE VALUE OF TIME 


. 18 


III. FRIENDSHIP 


. 23 


IV. OLD AGE AND DEATH 


28 


V. VIRTUE 


. 35 


VI. NOBILITY 


. 39 


VII. CONTENTMENT AND HAPPI 




NESS 


42 


VIII. PRECEPT AND EXAMPLE 


. 47 


IX. MARRIAGE 


. 51 


X. THE TONGUE 


. 56 


XI. CONSCIENCE 


. 62 


XII. OBDURACY 


. 65 


XIII. SECRETIVENESS 


. 68 


XIV. WEALTH 


. 71 


XV. TEMPERANCE AND INTEMPER 
ANCE 


. 75 


XVI. SLANDER 


. 80 


XVII. SELF-CONTROL 


. 84 


XVIII. FALSEHOOD 


. 90 


XIX. FLATTERY 


. 93 


XX. ANGER AND REVENGE 


. 96 


XXI. CIVILITY 


101 


XXII. TRUTH AND SINCERITY 


.107 


XXIII. PRIDE AND ARROGANCE 


.110 


XXIV. GRATITUDE 


.116 


XXV. LEARNING AND WISDOM 


.119 


XXVI. AVARICE AND COVETOUS 
NESS 


1^ 


XXVII. VANITY AND PLEASURE 


.130 


MISCELLANIES 


.137 



CHAPTER I. 

CHARITY AND BENEFICENCE. 

i. No character is more glorious, none 
more attractive of universal admiration and 
respect than that of helping those who are 
in no condition of helping themselves. 

2. Money, like dung, does no good till 
it is spread. There is no real use of riches, 
except it be in distribution; the rest is but 
conceit. 

3. That which is given with pride and 
ostentation is rather an ambition than a 
bounty. Let a benefit be ever so consid- 
erable, the manner of conferring it is yet 
the noblest part. 

4. No object is more pleasing to the eye 
than the sight of a man whom you have 
obliged; nor any music so agreeable to the 
ear as the voice of one that owns you for 
his benefactor. 

5. It is a good rule for every one who 
has a competency of fortune to lay aside a 
certain proportion of his income for pious 



10 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

and charitable uses; he will then always 
give easily and cheerfully. 

6. Those who are unwilling to do us any 
services are never unprovided of excuses. 

7. When we commend good and noble 
actions, we make them, in some measure, 
our own. 

8. Do good with what thou hast, or it 
will do thee no good. 

9. Reckon upon benefits well placed as 
a treasure that is laid up; and account thy- 
self the richer for that which thou givest 
a worthy person. 

10. We may be as good as we please, if 
we please to be good. 

11. We can strike up bargains and make 
contracts by proxy; but all men must work 
out their salvation in person. 

12. Charity is the salt of riches. 

.13. Let usefulness and beneficence, not 
ostentation and vanity, direct the train of 
your pursuits. 

14. Charity, like the sun, brightens every 
object on which it shines. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 11 

15. Art thou poor? — show thyself active 
and industrious, peaceable and contented. 
Art thou wealthy? — show thyself benefi- 
cent and charitable, condescending and hu- 
mane. 

16. It is much better to have your gold 
in the hand than in the heart. 

17. He that does good to another man 
does also good to himself; not only in the 
consequence, but in the very act of doing 
it; for the conscience of well-doing is an 
ample reward. 

18. Constant activity in endeavoring to 
make others happy is one of the surest ways 
of making ourselves so. 

19. Consider thy property nothing else 
than a trust in thy hands. 

20. It is a part of a charitable man's epi- 
taph: "What I possessed, is left to others; 
what I gave away, remains with me." 

21. Omission of good is a commission of 
evil. 

22. In judging of others let us always 
think the best, and employ the spirit of 



12 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

charity and candor. But in judging of our- 
selves we ought to be exact and severe. 

23. In doing what we ought we deserve 
no praise, because it is our duty. 

24. The good you do is not lost, though 
you forget it. 

25. Rich people who are covetous are 
like the cypress tree, they appear well, but 
are fruitless; so many rich persons have the 
means to be generous, yet some are not so ; 
but they should consider that they are only 
trustees for what they possess, and should 
show their wealth to be more in doing good 
than merely in having it. They should not 
reserve their benevolence for purposes after 
they are dead, for those who give not till 
they die show that they would not even 
then if they could keep it any longer. 

26. They who have nothing to give can 
often afford relief to others by imparting 
what they feel. 

27. Alms are the golden key that opens 
the gates of heaven. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 13 

28. Life is made up, not of great sacri- 
fices or duties, but of little things, in which 
smiles and kindness, and small obligations, 
given habitually, are what win and pre- 
serve the heart, and secure comfort. 

29. As the sword of the best tempered 
metal is most flexible, so the truly generous 
are most pliant and courteous. 

30. We should give as we would receive, 
cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; 
for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks 
to the fingers. 

31. The pity of tears only is too water- 
ish to do any good. 

32. Charity is friendship in common, and 
friendship is charity inclosed. 

33. Blemish not thy good deeds, neither 
use uncomfortable words when thou givest 
anything; but in all thy gifts show a cheer- 
ful countenance. 

34. Promise not twice to any man the 
service you may be able to render him ; and 
be not loquacious, if you wish to be 
esteemed for your kindness. 



14 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

35. He confers a twofold benefit on the 
needy man who confers it speedily. 

36. The sum of morality is give and for- 
give, bear and forbear. 

37. There is little pleasure in the world 
that is true and sincere besides the pleas- 
ure of doing our duty and doing good. 

38. When we have no pleasure in good- 
ness, we may with certainty conclude the 
reason to be that our pleasure is all derived 
from an opposite quarter. 

39. The manner of saying or doing any- 
thing goes a great way in the value of the 
thing itself. It was well said of him that 
called a good office that was done harshly, 
and with ill-will, a stony piece of bread: "It 
was necessary for him that is hungry to re- 
ceive it, but it almost chokes a man in the 
going down." 

40. The highest exercise of charity is 
charity toward the uncharitable. 

41. The root of all benevolent actions is 
filial piety and fraternal love. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 15 

42. That charity which longs to publish 
itself ceases to be charity. 

43. A beneficent person is like a fountain 
watering the earth, and spreading fertility; 
it is, therefore, more delightful and more 
honorable to give than to receive. 

44. A woman who wants a charitable 
heart wants a pure mind. 

45. It is an old saying that charity begins 
at home; but this is no reason it should not 
go abroad; a man should live with the 
world as a citizen of the world; he may 
have a preference for the particular quarter 
or square, or even alley, in which he lives, 
but he should have a generous feeling for 
the welfare of the whole. 

46. Kindness is the golden chain by 
which society is bound together. 

47. We are rich only through what we 
give ; and poor only through what we refuse 
and keep. 

48. Loving kindness is greater than laws ; 
and the charities of life are more than all 
ceremonies. 



16 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

49. Gold should never be made the god 
of our idolatry, but the agent of our benev- 
olence. 

50. A vain man's motto is: Win gold 
and wear it; a generous man's: Win gold 
and share it; a miser's: Win gold and spare 
it; a proflligate's : Win gold and spend it; a 
broker's: Win gold and lend it; a fool's: 
Win gold and end it; a gambler's: Win 
gold and lose it; a wise man's: Win gold 
and use it. 

51. He gives not best that gives most; 
but he gives most who gives best. 

52. He who gives what he would readily 
throw away, gives without generosity; for 
the essence of generosity is in self-sacrifice. 

53. The best thing you can give to your 
enemy is forgiveness ; to an opponent, toler- 
ance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, 
a good example; to a father, deference; to 
your mother, conduct that will make her 
proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all 
men, charity. 

54. Do all the good you can, in all the 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 17 

ways you can, to all the souls you can, in 
every place you can, at all times you can, 
with all the zeal you can, as long as ever 
you can. 

55. He that does good for good's sake 
seeks neither praise nor reward, but he is 
sure of both in the end. 



J& 




CHAPTER II. 

THE VALUE OF TIME. 

i. The advantage of living does not con- 
sist in length of days, but in the right im- 
provement of them. As many days as we 
pass without doing some good, are so many 
days entirely lost. 

2. This day only is ours; we are dead to 
yesterday, and we are not yet born to the 
morrow. 

3. The ruins of time are the monuments 
of mortality. 

4. Never defer that till to-morrow which 
you can do to-day. Never do that by proxy 
which you can do yourself. 

5. In the morning think what thou hast 
to do, and at night ask thyself what thou 
hast done. 

6. Spend the day well, and thou wilt re- 
joice at night. 

7. He that follows his recreation instead 
of his business shall, in a little time, have 
no business to follow. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 19 

8. If you make a good use of the present 
time, you need not be apprehensive as to 
the future. 

9. If we calculate the time of life for sev- 
enty years, and take from it the time ot our 
infancy and childhood, sleep and recreation, 
eating and drinking, sickness and old age, 
but a very little will remain for service. 

10. The man who lives in vain, lives 
worse than in vain. He who lives to no 
purpose, lives to a bad purpose. 

11. Make the most of your minute; and 
be good for something while it is in your 
power. 

12. As every thread of gold is valuable, 
so is every minute of time; and as it would 
be great folly to shoe horses (as Nero chd) 
with gold, so it is to spend time in trifles. 

13. One should make a serious study of a 
pastime. 

14. Time is the greatest of all tyrants. As 
we go on towards age, he taxes our health, 
limbs, faculties, strength and features. 

15. Time is the old justice that examines 
all offenders. 



20 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

1 6. None but the wise man can employ 
leisure well; and he that makes the best use 
of his time hath none to spare. 

17. Time once passed never returns. The 
moment which is lost is lost forever. 

18. Time, with all its celerity, moves 
slowly on to him whose whole employment 
is to watch its flight. 

19. He that waits for an opportunity to 
do much at once, may breathe out his life 
in idle wishes; and regret, in the last hour, 
his useless intentions and barren zeal. 

20. Man, in his highest earthly glory, is 
but a reed floating on the stream of time, 
and forced to follow every direction of the 
current. 

21. Have a time and place for every- 
thing, and do everything in its time and 
place, and you will not only accomplish 
more, but have far more leisure than those 
who are always hurrying, as if in vain, at- 
tempting to overtake time that had been 
lost. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 21 

22. Nothing is more precious than time, 
yet nothing less valued. 

23. Actions measured by time seldom 
prove bitter by repentance. 

24. Be busy about something, so that 
Satan may always find you occupied. 

25. Idleness is the hot-bed of temptation, 
the cradle of disease, the waster of time, and 
the canker-worm of felicity. 

26. He is idle that might be better em- 
ployed. The idle man is more perplexed 
what to do than the industrious is doing 
what he ought. 

27. There are but very few who know 
how to be idle and innocent. By doing noth- 
ing we learn to do ill. 

28. "There is a time to be born, and a 
time to die," says Solomon, and it is the 
memento of a truly wise man; but there is 
an interval between these two times of in- 
finite importance. 

29. As nothing truly valuable can be at- 
tained without industry, so there can be no 
persevering industry without deep sense of 
the value of time. 



22 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

30. We all complain of the shortness of 
time, and yet have much more than we 
know what to do with. Our lives are spent 
either in doing nothing at all, or in doing 
nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing 
what we ought to do; we are always com- 
plaining our days are few, and acting as 
though there would be no end of them. 

31. Life, however short, is made still 
shorter by the waste of time. 

32. If you have time, do not wait for 
time. 

33. Those who understand the value of 
time treat it as prudent people do their 
money; they make a little go a great way. 

34. Dost thou love life? Then do not 
squander time; for that is the stuff life i? 
made of. 

35. Time consists of two days — one for 
thee, the other against thee. 

36. Delay not till to-morrow to be wise; 
to-morrow's sun to thee may never rise. 

37. He who loses an hour in the morning 
is looking for it all the rest of the day. 



CHAPTER III. 

FRIENDSHIP. 

1. Only good wise men can be friends; 
others are but companions. 

2. The friendship of the noble-minded is 
an inestimable treasure; but that of the 
worthless is ever attended with regret. 

3. A man may have a thousand intimate 
acquaintances, and not a friend among 
them all. If you have one friend, think 
yourself happy. 

4. There is some utility in every friend- 
ship, save in that of the simple-minded. 

5. Wealth without friends is like life 
without health. The one an uncomfortable 
fortune; the other a miserable being. 

6. Without friends the world is but a 
wilderness. 

7. One enemy is one too many; a thou- 
sand friends are none too many. 

8. A man without a fitting companion is 
like the left hand without the right. 



24 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

9. A faithful friend is the medicine of life, 
and his excellency is invaluable. 

10. A true and faithful friend is a living 
treasure; a comfort in solitude, and a 
sanctuary in distress. 

11. Be not a neighbor of him who wears 
the cloak of a saint to hide the deformities 
of a fool. 

12. A friend cannot be known in pros- 
perity, and an enemy cannot be hidden in 
adversity. 

13. A true friend unbosoms freely, ad- 
vises justly, assists readily, adventures bold- 
ly, takes all patiently, defends courageous- 
ly, and continues a friend unchangeably. 

14. If a man does not make new ac- 
quaintance, as he passes through life, he 
will soon find himself left alone. A man 
should keep his friendship in constant re- 
pair. 

15. The enmity of the wise man is bet- 
ter than the friendship of the fool. 

16. He to whom all men are alike will 
have no companions. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 25 

17. That friendship will not continue to 
the end which is begun for an end. 

18. To have no faithful friends is worse 
than death. 

19. Friends must be preserved with good 
deeds, and enemies reconciled with fair 
words. 

20. Prosperity gains friends; and ad- 
versity tries them. 

21. Avoid the friendship of those who 
will neither forgive, nor accept an apology. 

22. A broken friendship may be soldered, 
but will never be sound. 

23. A friend that you buy with presents, 
will be bought from you. 

24. It is better to sit with a wise man in 
prison than with a fool in paradise. 

25. Life without a friend, is death with- 
out a witness. 

26. Make not thy friend too cheap to 
thee; nor thyself to thy friend. 

27. He is happy that finds a true friend 
in extremity; but he is much more so, who 
findeth not extremity whereby to try his 
friends. 



26 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

28. No man can be happy without a 
friend, nor sure of his friend till he is un- 
happy. 

29. The society of ladies is the school of 
politeness. 

30. To be every one's friend is to be 
every one's fool. 

31. People will, in a great degree, and 
not without reason, form their opinion of 
you upon that which they have of your 
friends; and there is a Spanish proverb 
which says, very justly: "Tell me with 
whom thou goest, and I will tell thee what 
thou doest." 

32. Those beings only are fit for solitude, 
who like nobody, are like nobody, and are 
liked by nobody. 

33. A father is a treasure, a brother a 
comfort, but a true friend is both. 

34. Adversity does not take from us 
true friends; it only disperses those who 
pretended to be so. 

35. Make no man your friend before you 
have ascertained how he has behaved to- 
ward his former friend. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 27 

36. Friendship is the most sacred of all 
moral bonds. 

37. Where there is room in the heart, 
there is always room in the house. 

38. If men wish to be held in esteem 
they must associate with those only who 
are estimable. 

39. He who slights a friend will soon 
have no friend to slight. 

40. False friends are like our shadow, 
keeping close to us while we walk in the 
sunshine, but leaving us the instant we 
cross into the shade. 

41. Never contract friendship with a 
man that is not better than thyself. 

42. No man can be provident of his time 
who is not prudent in the choice of his 
company. 

43. Be more prompt to go to a friend in 
adversity than in prosperity. 

44. Be not the fourth friend of him who 
had three before and lost them. 

45. The only way to have a friend is to 
be one. 



CHAPTER IV. 

OLD AGE AND DEATH. 

i. Few take care to live well, but many 
to live long; though it is in a man's power 
to do the former, but in no man's power to 
do the latter. 

2. He that dies well, has lived long 
enough. So soon as death enters upon the 
stage, the tragedy of life is done. 

3. When our vices leave us, we flatter 
ourselves that we leave them. 

4. Some are old in their youth; others 
young in their old age. 

5. When we were children, we deemed 
ourselves men; now that we are old, we 
are deemed children. 

6. Youth is a crown of roses; old age is 
a crown of thorns. 

7. Old age has deformities enough of its 
own; do not add to it the deformities of 
vice. 

8. When we are young, we are slavishly 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 29 

employed in procuring something whereby 
we may live comfortably when we grow 
old; and when we are old, we perceive it 
too late to live as we proposed. 

9. There cannot live a more unhappy 
creature than an ill-natured old man, who 
is neither capable of receiving pleasures nor 
sensible of doing them to others. 

10. We hope to grow old, yet we fear old 
age; that is, we are willing to live, and 
afraid to die. 

11. A comfortable old age is the reward 
of a well-spent youth. 

12. All the joys in the world cannot take 
one gray hair out of our heads. 

13. An honorable death is better than an 
inglorious life. 

14. If death be terrible, the fault is not in 
death, but in thee. 

15. In childhood be modest, in youth 
temperate, in manhood just, in old age 
prudent. 

16. Six feet of earth make all men equal. 
The end of a dissolute life is commonly a 
desperate death, 



30 PROVERBIAL, WISDOM. 

17. The first breath is the beginning of 
death. 

18. The follies of youth are food for re- 
pentance in old age. 

19. The grave is the general meeting- 
place. 

20. The old man's staff is the rapper at 
death's door. 

21. We are born crying, live complain- 
ing, and die disappointed. 

22. He who thinks often of death, does 
things worthy of life. 

23. There is but this difference between 
the death of old men and young men; that 
old men go to death, and death comes to 
young men. 

24. The grave is the common treasury to 
which we must all be taxed. 

25. There appears to exist a greater de- 
sire to live long than to live well ! Measure 
by man's desires, he cannot live long 
enough; measure by his good deeds, and 
he has not lived long enough; measure by 
his evil deeds, and he has lived too long. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 31 

26. Though we seem grieved at the 
shortness of life in general, we are wishing 
every period of it at an end. The minor 
longs to be at age, then to be a man of 
business, then to make up an estate, then 
to arrive at honors, then to retire. 

2.J. He who increases the endearments 
of life, increases, at the same time, the ter- 
rors of death. 

28. When we think of death, a thousand 
sins, which we have trodden as worms be- 
neath our feet, rise up against us as flam- 
ing serpents. 

29. He who would like to act like a wise 
man, and build his house on the rock, and 
not on the sand, should contemplate human 
life, not only in the sunshine, but in the 
shade. 

30. The veil which covers from our sight 
the events of succeeding years, is a veil 
woven by the hand of mercy. 

31. The excesses of youth are bills drawn 
by time, payable thirty years after date with 
interest. 



32 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

32. This world is a stage and life your 
walk across ; you have come, you have seen, 
you are gone. 

33. What you leave at your death, let it 
be without controversy, else the lawyers 
will be your heirs. 

34. He dies like a beast who has done 
no good while he lived. 

35. The free man thinks of nothing so 
little as of death, and his wisdom is a medi- 
tation, not of death, but of life. 

36. Let us respect gray hairs, especially 
our own. 

37. Old men's eyes are like old men's 
memories; they are strongest for things a 
long way off. 

38. This world is a dream within a 
dream; and as we grow older, each step is 
awakening. The youth awakes, as he 
thinks, from childhood ; the full-grown man 
despises the pursuits of youth as visionary; 
and the old man looks on manhood as a 
feverish dream. Death, the last sleep? 
No! it is the last and final awakening. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 33 

39. Flesh is but the glass which holds the 
dust that measures all our time, which shall 
be crumbled into dust. 

40. Pleasure has its time; so, too, has 
wisdom. Make love in thy youth, and in 
old age attend to thy salvation. 

41. There is nothing more disgraceful 
than that an old man should have nothing 
to produce as a proof that he has lived long 
except his years. 

42. An honest death is better than a dis- 
honest living. 

43. Oh! how small a portion of earth 
will hold us when we are dead, who am- 
bitiously seek after the whole world while 
we are living. 

44. Time's chariot wheels make their car- 
riage road in the fairest faces. 

45. No snow falls lighter than the snow 
of age; but none lies heavier, for it never 
melts. 

46. To live long it is necessary to live 
slowly. 



34 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

47. Death brings to the righteous rest, 
and the death of the wicked brings rest to 
mankind. 

48. All die who have lived; all have not 
lived who die. 

49. "When I am a man," is the poetry of 
childhood; "When I was young," is the 
poetry of old age. 




CHAPTER V. 

VIRTUE. 

i. A virtuous and well-disposed person 
is like good metal; the more he is fired, the 
more he is fined; the more he is opposed, 
the more he is approved. Wrongs may 
well try him and touch him, but cannot 
imprint in him a false stamp. 

2. A man of virtue is an honor to his 
country, a glory to humanity, a satisfaction 
to himself, and a benefactor to the whole 
world. He is rich without oppression or 
dishonesty; charitable without ostentation; 
courteous without deceit, and brave with- 
out vice. 

3. Genuine virtue has a language that 
speaks to every heart throughout the 
world. It is a language which is under- 
stood by all. In every region, every 
climate, the homage paid to it is the same. 
In no one sentiment were ever mankind 
more generally agreed. 



36 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

4. Sell not virtue to purchase wealth. 

5. There is no glory, no true greatness 
without virtue. 

6. A man that hath no virtue in himself 
envieth it in another. 

7. It is difficult to convince mankind that 
the love of virtue is the love of themselves. 

8. The first step to virtue is to love vir- 
tue in another. 

9. Virtue and happiness are mother and 
daughter. 

10. Virtue dwells not in the tongue, but 
in the heart. 

11. Virtue maketh men on earth famous, 
in their graves illustrious, in the heavens 
immortal. 

12. True merit, like a river, the deeper 
it is, the less noise it makes. 

13. Vice stings us even in our pleasures, 
but virtue consoles us even in our pains. 

14. To be innocent is to be not guilty; 
but to be virtuous is to overcome our evil 
intentions. 

15. Be a father to virtue, but a father- 
in-law to vice. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 37 

1 6. Love virtue, without austerity; pleas- 
ure, without effeminacy, and life, without 
fearing its end. 

17. Every virtue gives a man a degree 
of felicity in some kind; honesty gives a 
man a good report; justice, estimation; 
prudence, respect; courtesy and liberality, 
affection; temperance gives health; forti- 
tude, a quiet mind, not to be moved by any 
adversity. 

18. Be not ashamed of thy virtues; hon- 
or is a good brooch to wear in a man's hat 
at all times. 

19. The four cardinal virtues are, pru- 
dence, fortitude, temperance and justice. 

20. The virtue of young persons consists 
chiefly in not doing anything to an excess. 

21. Everything great is not always good, 
but all good things are great. 

22. Live virtuously, and you cannot die 
too soon, nor live too long. 

23. Virtue, like a dowerless beauty, has 
more admirers than followers. 



38 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

24. If you can be well without health, 
you can be happy without virtue. 

25. The most virtuous of all men is he 
that contents himself with being virtuous 
without seeking to appear so. 

26. Virtue by calculation is the virtue of 
vice. 



Jfe> 



CHAPTER VI. 

NOBILITY. 

1. Of all vanities and fopperies, the van- 
ity of high birth is the greatest. True 
nobility is derived from virtue, not from 
birth. Titles, indeed, may be purchased; 
but virtue is the only coin that makes the 
bargain valid. 

2. He who has no intrinsic nobility, will 
derive no benefit from the noble pedigree 
of his ancestors. 

3. What is birth to man, if it shall be 
a stain to his dead ancestors to have left 
such an offspring? 

4. The original of all men is the same; 
and virtue is the only nobility. 

5. Title and ancestry, render a good 
man more illustrious; but an ill one, more 
contemptible. Vice is infamous, though in 
a prince; and virtue, honorable, though in 
a peasant. 

6. To be of noble parentage, and not to 



40 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

be endowed with noble qualities, is rather 
a defamation than a glory. 

7. He that boasteth of his ancestors, 
confesseth he hath no virtue of his own. 
No other person hath lived for our honor; 
nor ought that to be reputed ours which 
was long before we had a being. For what 
advantage can it be to a blind man that 
his parents had good eyes? Does he see 
one whit the better? 

8. The wise man replied to the fool, who 
despised him on account of the lowness of 
his family: "Thou are the blemish of thy 
family; and my family is the blemish in 
me. 

9. True glory consists in doing what de- 
serves to be written; in writing what de- 
serves to be read, and in so living as to 
make the world happier and better for our 
living in it. 

10. Some men by ancestry are only the 
shadow of a mighty name. 

11. Nobility without virtue is a fine set- 
ting without a gem. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 41 

12. Nobility does not com.st in magnifi- 
cence of dress or eminence of rank. Art 
thou virtuous? Thou art sufficiently 
noble. 

13. It is better to be nobly remembered, 
than nobly born. 

14. The man who has nothing to boast 
of but his illustrious ancestry is like the 
potato — the best part under ground. 

15. No man is nobler born than another, 
unless he is born with better abilities and 
a more amiable disposition; they who make 
such a parade with their family pictures 
and pedigrees are, properly speaking, 
rather to be called noted or notorious than 
noble persons. 



gfe* 



CHAPTER VII. 

CONTENTMENT AND HAPPINESS. 

i. He who loseth wealth, loseth much; 
he who loseth a friend, loseth more; but 
he who loseth his spirits, loseth all. 

2. A good' man, whether he be rich or 
poor, shall at all times rejoice with a cheer- 
ful countenance. 

3. To live, nature affordeth; to live con- 
tent, wisdom teacheth. 

4. The greatest misfortune of all is nor 
to be able to bear misfortunes. 

5. In order to acquire a capacity for 
happiness, it must be our first study to 
rectify inward disorders. 

6. The happiness of every man depends 
more upon the state of his own mind than 
upon any one external circumstance; nay, 
more upon all external things put to- 
gether. 

7. There is no greater riches than health, 
and no greater pleasure than a cheerful 
heart. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 43 

8. Whoever is desirous of prolonging 
his days must prepare himself with a 
strong heart to meet casualties. 

9. Contentment is a pearl of great price, 
and whoever procures it at the expense of 
ten thousand desires makes a wise and a 
happy purchase. 

10. A temperate spirit and moderate ex- 
pectations are excellent safeguards of the 
mind, in this uncertain and changing state. 

11. A contented mind is a continual 
feast. 

12. The man of fortitude may be com- 
pared to a castle built on a rock, which de- 
fies the attacks of the surrounding waters; 
the man of a feeble and timorous spirit, 
to a hut placed on the shore, which every 
wind shakes and every wave overflows. 

13. A poor spirit is poorer than a poor 
purse. 

14. Misfortunes that cannot be avoided, 
must be sweetened. 

15. He is happy whose circumstances 
suit his temper; but he is more excellent, 



44 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

who can suit his temper to any circum- 
stances. 

1 6. Men of the noblest dispositions think 
themselves happiest when others share 
their happiness with them. 

17. We take more pains to persuade 
others that we are happy than in endeav- 
oring to think so ourselves. 

18. When those things befall us which 
by no prudence we can avoid we shall, by 
calling to memory what has happened to 
others, be able to reflect that nothing new 
has befallen ourselves. 

19. If two angels were sent down from 
heaven, one to conduct an empire and the 
other to sweep a street, they would feel no 
inclination to change employments. 

20. Is it not strange that some persons 
should be so delicate as not to bear a dis- 
agreeable picture in the house, and yet, by 
their behavior, force every face they see 
about them to wear the gloom of uneasi- 
ness and discontent? 

21. To think well of every other man's 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 45 

condition, and to dislike our own, is one ot 
the misfortunes of human nature. 

22. The best physicians are Dr. Diet, Dr. 
Quiet and Dr. Merryman. 

23. Cheerfulness is an excellent quality. 
It has been called the bright weather of the 
heart. 

24. We are no longer happy so soon as 
we wish to be happier. 

25. Happiness is where we find it, but 
rarely where we seek it. 

26. To carry care to bed is to sleep with 
a pack on your back. 

2*j. Since we cannot get what we like, 
let us like what we can get. 

28. Contentment is natural wealth, lux- 
ury is artificial poverty. 

29. There is this difference between hap- 
piness and wisdom, that he who thinks 
himself the happiest man really is so; but 
he that thinks himself the wisest, is gener- 
ally the greatest fool. 

30. Put off thy cares with thy clothes; 
so shall thy rest strengthen thy labor, and 
so thy labor sweeten thy rest. 



46 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

31. Fixed to no place is happiness; it 
is nowhere to be found, or everywhere. 

32. There is a German proverb which 
says that "Take it easy," and "Live long," 
are brothers. 

33. He is great who can do what he 
wishes; he is wise who wishes to do what 
he can. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

PRECEPT AND EXAMPLE. 

1. It is the common custom of the world 
to follow example rather than precept; but 
it would be the safer course to learn by 
precept rather than example. 

2. Examples do not authorize a fault. 
Vice must never plead prescription. 

3. Whatever parent gives his children 
good instruction, and sets them at the 
same time a bad example, may be consid- 
ered as bringing them food in one hand 
and poison in the other. 

4. A good example is the best sermon. 

5. He that gives good advice, builds with 
one hand; he that gives good counsel and 
example, builds with both; but he that 
gives good admonition and bad example, 
builds with one hand and pulls down with 
the other. 

6. Parents who wish to train up their 
children in the way they should go, must 



48 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

go in the way in which they would train 
up their children. 

7. The example of good men is visible 
philosophy. 

8. Be a pattern to others, and then all 
will go well; for as a whole city is infected 
by the licentious passions and vices of 
great men, so it is likewise reformed by 
their moderation. 

9. No man is so insignificant as to be 
sure his example can do no hurt. 

10. Ill examples are like contagious dis- 
eases. 

11. A man of words and not of deeds is 
like a garden full of weeds. 

12. One watch set right will do to try 
many by; but, on the other hand, one going 
wrong may be the means of misleading a 
whole neighborhood; and the same may be 
said of the example we individually set to 
those around us. - 

13. Custom without reason is but an an- 
cient error. 

14. Custom is the plague of wise men 
and the idol of fools. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 49 

15. Noble examples stir us up to noble 
actions, and the very history of large and 
public souls inspires a man with generous 
thoughts. 

16. We must speak well and act well. 
Brave actions are the substance of life, and 
good sayings are the ornament of it. 

17. We ought not to judge of men's mer- 
its by their qualifications, but by the use 
they make of them. 

18. He whose wisdom exceeds his deeds 
is like a tree having many branches and few 
roots. 

19. It is easier to make the indigent 
wealthy, and the arrogant meek, than to 
make a rebel loyal, lawyers preach what 
they practice, or parsons practice what they 
preach. 

20. Such as have virtue always in their 
mouths, and neglect it in practice, are like 
a harp which emits a sound pleasing to 
others, while itself is insensible to the 
music. 

21. Precept is instruction written in the 
sand; the tide flows over it and the record 



50 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

is gone; example is graven on the rock, 
and the lesson is not soon lost. 

22. He that gives good precepts, and fol- 
lows them by a bad example, is like a fool- 
ish man who should take great pains to 
kindle a fire, and when it is kindled, throw 
cold water upon it to quench it. 

23. You can preach a better sermon with 
your life than with your lips. 

24. Be not of those who publicly curse 
the devil and secretly serve him. 

25. He that cleanses a blot with blotted 
fingers makes a greater blur. 

26. None can pray well but he that lives 
well. 

27. One may understand like an angel 
and vet be a devil. 



CHAPTER IX. 

MARRIAGE. 

i. He who gets a good husband for his 
daughter hath gained a son, and he who 
meets with a bad one hath lost a daughter. 

2. Like blood, like good, and like ages 
make the happiest marriages. 

3. In marriage prefer the person before 
wealth, virtue before beauty, and the mind 
before the body; then you have a wife, a 
friend, and a companion. 

4. Take a vine of good soil, and a daugh- 
ter of a good mother. 

5. The best dowry to advance the mar- 
riage of your daughter with one who will 
render her happy is that she have in her 
countenance sweetness and gentleness, in 
her speech wisdom, in her behavior mod- 
esty, and in her life virtue. 

6. The reason why so few marriages are 
happy is because young ladies spend their 
time in making nets, not in making cages. 



52 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

7. Marriage, with peace, is the world's 
paradise; with strife, this life's purgatory. 

8. Man is the glory of the creation; but 
the woman is the glory of the man. 

9. The family is the heart's fatherland! 
Hold, then, the family sacred! Look upon 
it as one of the indestructible conditions 
of life, and reject every attempt made to 
undermine it. 

10. A poor man who takes a rich wife 
has a ruler, not a wife. 

11. Of all the actions of a man's life, his 
marriage does least concern other people; 
yet of all actions of our life, it is most med- 
dled with by other people. 

12. Love that has nothing but beauty to 
keep it in good health is short-lived and 
apt to have ague fits. 

13. Marry your sons when you will, your 
daughters when you can. 

14. Be not jealous over the wife of thy 
bosom, and teach her not an evil lesson 
against thyself. 

15. Women have more strength in their 
looks than we have in our laws, and more 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 53 

power by their tears than we have by our 
arguments. 

1 6. Rather have a man without an es- 
tate than have an estate without a man. 

17. The reputation of a statesman, the 
credit of a merchant, and the modesty of a 
woman, prevail more than their power, 
riches, or beauty. 

18. Solid love, whose root is virtue, can 
no more die than virtue itself. 

19. Marry but for love; but see that thou 
lovest what is lovely. 

20. Maids want nothing but husbands, 
and when they have them they want every- 
thing. 

21. When a man and a woman are mar- 
ried their romance ceases and their history 
commences. 

22. There is more of good nature than 
of good sense at the bottom of most mar- 
riages. 

23. If you would have the nuptial union 
last, let virtue be the bond that ties it fast. 

24. A man finds himself seven years old- 
er the day after his marriage. 



54 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

25. If a man is happily married, his "rib" 
is worth all the other bones of his body. 

26. Ride not post for your marriage; if 
you do, you may, in the period of your 
journey, take sorrow for your inn and 
make repentance your host. 

2J. It is in vain for a man to be born 
fortunate, if he be unforunate in his mar- 
riage. 

28. In choosing a wife, a nurse, or a 
school-teacher look to the breed. There 
is as'much in blood in men as in horses. 

29. Wedlock is like wine, not properly 
judged of till the second glass. 

30. For a young man to marry a young 
woman is of heaven; for an old man to 
marry a young woman is of man; for a 
young man to marry an old woman is of 
the devil. 

31. Men should keep their eyes wide 
open before marriage, and half shut after- 
ward. 

32. Two opposite opinions should not 
lie on the same bolster. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 55 

33. Marriage with a good woman is a 
harbor in the tempest of life; with a bad 
woman it is a tempest in the harbor. 




CHAPTER X. 

THE TONGUE. 

i. Never hold any one by the button or 
the hand, in order to be heard out; for if 
people are unwilling to hear you, you had 
better hold your tongue. 

2. If you think twice before you speak 
once, you will speak twice the better for it. 

3. The tongue is, at the same time, the 
best part of man, and his worst. With 
good government, none is more useful; and 
without it, none is more mischievous. 

4. The tongue is as a wild beast, very 
difficult to be chained again when once let 
loose. 

5. Zeno, hearing a young man speaking 
too freely, told him: "For this reason we 
have two ears, two eyes, and but one 
tongue, that we should hear and see much, 
and speak little." 

6. As men of sense say a great deal in a 
few words, so the half-witted have a talent 
of talking much and yet saying nothing. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 57 

7. A tale out of season is as music in 
mourning. 

8. Confine your tongue, lest it will con- 
fine you. 

9. There is a time when nothing, a time 
when something, but no time when all 
things are to be spoken. 

10. Accustom thy tongue to say: "I 
know not." 

11. Be sparing with thy tongue, as thou 
art with thy wealth. 

12. A wound from a tongue is worse 
than a wound from the sword; for the lat- 
ter affects only the body, the former the 
spirit — the soul. 

13. Speech is the messenger of the heart. 

14. In the assembly of the wise be more 
disposed to listen than to speak. 

15. A narrow mind has a broad tongue. 

16. A slip of the tongue is more dan- 
gerous than the slip of the foot; for the slip 
of the tongue may cost thy head, whilst the 
slip of the foot may easily be cured. 

17. Give not thy tongue too great liberty, 
lest it take thee a prisoner. A word un- 



58 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

spoken is, like the sword in the scabbard, 
thine. If vented, thy sword is in another's 
hand. If thou desirest to be held wise, be 
so wise as to hold thy tongue. 

1 8. Speak not in the ears of a fool; for he 
will despise the wisdom of thy words. Cast 
not your pearls before a swine. 

19. Think before you speak, and con- 
sider before you promise. Take time to de- 
liberate and advise, but lose no time in ex- 
ecuting your resolutions. 

20. He that shoots an arrow in jest may 
kill a man in earnest. 

21. He who says what he likes will hear 
what he does not like. 

22. A fool's tongue is long enough to 
cut his own throat. 

23. Let not your tongue run away with 
your brains. 

24. A good word is an easy obligation; 
but not to speak ill requires only our si- 
lence, which costs us nothing. 

25. Fire and sword are but slow engines 
of destruction in comparison with the bab- 
bler. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 59 

26. There are a set of malicious, prating, 
prudent gossips, both male and female, who 
murder characters to kill time; and will rob 
a young fellow of his good name before 
he has years to know the value of it. 

27. The tongue of idle persons is never 
idle. 

28. The pen of the tongue should be 
dipped in the ink of the heart. 

29. The greatest wisdom of speech is to 
know when, and what, and where to speak; 
the time, matter, and manner. The next 
to it is silence. 

30. A bridle for the tongue is a neces- 
sary piece of furniture. 

31. To talk without thinking is to shoot 
without aiming. 

32. Let not thy tongue be a thorny bush, 
pricking and hurting those who are around 
thee; not altogether a barren tree, yielding 
nothing; but a fruitful tree, a tree of life 
to thy neighbor. 

33. A good tongue has seldom need to 
beg attention. 



60 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

34. The deepest waters are most silent; 
empty vessels make the greatest sound, 
and tinkling crystals the worst music. They 
who think least commonly speak most. 

35. Be not too brief in conversation, lest 
you be not understood; nor too diffuse, lest 
you be troublesome. 

36. Men are born with two eyes and but 
one tongue, in order that they should see 
twice as much as they say. But from their 
conduct one would suppose they were born 
with two tongues and one eye; for those 
talk the most who have observed the least, 
and they obtrude their remarks upon 
everything who have seen into nothing. 

37. By examining the tongue of a pa- 
tient, physicians find out the disease of the 
body and wise men the diseases of the 

mind. 

38. Let the tongue speak the language 
of the heart. 

39. The tongue is but three inches long, 
yet it can kill a man six feet high. 

40. It is the wise head that makes the 
tongue still. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. $1 

41. If you would pass for more than your 
value, say little. It is easier to look wise 
than to talk wisely. 

42. Think all you speak, but speak not 
all you think. 

43. A vicious dog, an aching tooth, and 
an unruly tongue are three things which 
a man can only possess to his own damage. 

44. A foul breath is a calamity; a foul 
mouth a criminality. 

45. Most men speak when they do not 
know how to be silent. He is wise who 
knows when to hold his peace. Tie your 
tongue, lest it be wanton and luxuriate; 
keep it within banks; a rapidly flowing 
river soon collects mud. 



CHAPTER XI. 

CONSCIENCE. 

1. A firm faith is the best divinity; a good 
life the best philosophy; a clear conscience 
the best law; honesty the best policy, and 
temperance the best physic. 

2. A wicked man can never be happy 
though he had the riches of Croesus, the 
empire of Cyrus, and the glory of Alexan- 
der. Wealth and honor can never cure a 
wounded conscience. 

3. A clear conscience laughs at false ac- 
cusations. 

4. A good conscience is to the soul what 
health is to the body; it preserves constant 
ease and serenity within us, and more than 
countervails all the calamities and afflic- 
tions which can befall us without. 

5. It is always term-time in the court of 
conscience. 

6. Most men are afraid of a bad name, 
but few fear their conscience. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 63 

J. Man always prosperous would be 
giddy and insolent; always afflicted, would 
be sullen or despondent. Hopes and fears, 
joys and sorrows, are, therefore, so blended 
in his life as both to give room for worldly 
pursuits, and to recall, from time to time, 
the admonitions of conscience. 

8. A heart without secrecy is an open 
letter for every one to read. 

9. Our conscience is a fire within us, and 
our sins, as the fuel, instead of warming it, 
will scorch us, unless the fuel be removed 
or the heat of it be allayed by penitential 
tears. 

10. Conscience is a great ledger book in 
which all our offenses are written and regis- 
tered, and which time reveals to the sense 
and feeling of the offender. 

n. A man had better be poisoned in his 
blood than in his principles. 

12. Money dishonestly acquired is never 
worth its cost, while a good conscience 
never costs as much as it is worth. 

13. A man who sells his conscience for 
his interest will sell it for his pleasure. A 



64 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

man who will betray his country will betray 
his friend. 

14. He that loses his conscience has 
nothing left that is worth keeping. 

15. Trust that man in nothing who has 
not a conscience in everything. 

16. Cowardice asks, "Is it safe?" Expe- 
diency asks, "Is it politic?" Vanity asks, 
"Is it popular?" Conscience asks, "Is it 
right?" 

17. There is no witness so terrible, no 
accuser so powerful as conscience which 
dwells within us. 




CHAPTER XII. 

OBDURACY. 

i. Opinionative men will believe nothing 
but what they can comprehend, and there 
are but a few things that they are able to 
comprehend. 

2. No men are so often in the wrong as 
those who pretend to be always in the right. 

3. The strongest heads are commonly 
the weakest. 

4. He who will take no advice, but be al- 
ways his own counsellor, shall be sure to 
have a fool for his client. 

5. Man should not be stubborn as the 
cedar, but pliant as a reed. 

6. Man, at the best, is but a composition 
of good and evil. Diamonds have flaws, 
and roses have prickles; the sun has its 
shade, and the moon her spots. 

7. He who cannot bear one word of re- 
proof will have to bear many. 

8. The obstinate man does not hold opin- 
ions, but they hold him. 



66 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

9. No man should be confident of his 
own merit; the best err, and the wisest are 
deceived. 

10. The wisest of men have their follies, 
the best have their failings, and the most 
temperate have, now and then, their ex- 
cesses. 

11. The weakest spot in every man is 
where he thinks himself to be the wisest. 

12. A headstrong man and a fool may 
wear the same cap. 

13. A wise man may change his opinion; 
but the fool changes as often as the moon. 

14. We must not contradict, but instruct 
him that contradicts us; for a madman is 
not cured by another running mad also. 

15. When you obey your superior you 
instruct your inferior. 

16. A too great credulity is a great sim- 
plicity, and to believe nothing, because our 
narrow capacities cannot comprehend it, is 
great stupidity. 

17. No persons are more frequently 
wrong than those who will not admit they 
are wrong. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 67 

1 8. A man should never be ashamed to 
own he has been in the wrong, which is but 
saying, in other words, that he is wiser to- 
day than he was yesterday. 

19. Obstinate people are the lawyer's de- 
light. 

20. We should never be positive; forget 
not that we are mortal, and always liable 
to err. 

21. Rogues differ little. Each began first 
as a disobedient son. 

22. They that will not be counselled can- 
not be helped. If you do not hear reason, 
she will rap you on the knuckles. 

23. The worst of deafness is in the will. 

24. A blockhead will deny more in a 
single hour than a hundred doctors have 
proved in a hundred years. 

25. A blockhead cannot come in, nor go 
away, nor sit, nor rise, nor stand like a man 
of sense. 

26. No man has a right to do as he 
pleases, except when he pleases to do right. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

SECRETIVENESS. 

1. Never reveal your secrets to any, ex- 
cept it is as much "their" interest to keep 
them as it is yours they should be kept. 
Only trust thyself, and another shall not 
betray thee. 

2. That which is known to three persons 
is no secret. 

3. Reveal none of the secrets of thy 
friend. Be faithful to his interest. For- 
sake him not in time of danger. Abhor the 
thought of acquiring any advantage by his 
prejudice. 

4. Thy secret is thy slave. If thou let it 
loose thou becomest its slave. 

5. There are many who inquire after thy 
welfare; yet only to one of a thousand re- 
veal thy secret. 

6. None are so fond of secrets as those 
who do not mean to keep them; such per- 
sons covet secrets as a spendthrift does 
money, for the purpose of circulation. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 69 

7. A proper secrecy is the only mystery 
of able men ; mystery is the only secrecy of 
weak and cunning ones. 

8. Avoid the inquisitive person, for he is 
a babbler; nor do ears which are always 
open faithfully retain what is intrusted to 
their keeping. 

9. Do not speak of secret matters in a 
field that is full of little hills. 

10. If a fool knows a secret, he tells it 
because he is a fool; if a knave knows one, 
he tells it whenever it is his interest to tell 
it. But women and young men are very 
apt to tell what secrets they know from the 
vanity of having been trusted. Trust none 
of these whenever you can help it. 

11. To tell our own secrets is generally 
folly, but that folly is without guilt; to com- 
municate those with which we are intrusted 
is always treachery, and treachery for the 
most part combined with folly. 

12. It is a misfortune to be exposed; but 
folly for a man to expose himself. 

13. To keep your own secrets is wisdom, 



70 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

but to expect others to keep them is folly. 

14. Trust not him with secrets who, when 
left alone in your room, turns over your 
papers. 

15. When two friends part they should 
lock up one another's secrets and inter- 
change keys. 

16. To know how to keep a secret is the 
greatest of all secrets. 

17. He who trusts secrets to a servant 
makes him his master. 

18. A secret is too little for one, enough' 
for two, and too much for three. 

19. There is as much responsibility in 
imparting your own secrets as in keeping 
those of your neighbor. 

20. The public affairs of the prudent is a 
secret; the secret of the fool is a public af- 
fair. 



%*$> 



CHAPTER XIV. 

WEALTH. 

i. He that will not permit his wealth to 
do any good to others while he is living 
prevents it from doing any good to himself 
when he is dead, and by an egotism that is 
suicidal and has a double edge, cuts himself 
off from the truest pleasure here and the 
highest happiness hereafter. 

2. A great fortune in the hands of a fool 
is a great misfortune. The more riches a 
fool has, the greater fool he is. 

3. He is a great simpleton who imagines 
that the chief power of wealth is to supply 
wants. In ninety-nine cases out of a hun- 
dred it creates more wants than it supplies. 

4. Moderate riches will carry you; if you 
have more, you must carry them. 

5. Riches have made more men covetous 
than covetousness hath made men rich. 

6. The greatest pleasure wealth can af- 
ford us is that of doing good. It is a happy 



72 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

thing when a man's pleasure is also his 
perfection. 

7. The rich follow wealth, and the poor 
the rich. 

8. Physicians' faults are covered with 
earth, and rich men's with money. 

9. Some people are nothing else but 
money, pride, and pleasure. These three 
things engross their thought and take up 
the whole soul of them. 

10. Our wealth is often a snare to our- 
selves, and always a temptation to others. 

11. If you make money your god, it will 
plague you like a devil. 

12. Be not penny-wise; riches have 
wings, and sometimes they fly away of 
themselves, sometimes they must be set fly- 
ing to bring in more. 

13. When we have gold, we are in fear; 
when we have none, we are in danger. 

14. The gaining of wealth is a work of 
great labor; the possession, a source of 
great apprehension; the loss, a source of 
great grief. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 73. 

15. He is rich whose income is more than 
his expenses, and he is poor whose ex- 
penses exceed his income. 

16. A little house well filled, a little land 
well tilled, and a little life well willed, are 
great riches. 

17. The love of money is the root of all 
evil. 

18. How strangely are the opinions of 
men altered by a change in their condition ! 

19. Money and time are the heaviest 
burdens of life, and the unhappiest of all 
mortals are those who have more of either 
than they know how to use. 

20. It is not sinful to be poor, but to be 
dishonest; neither is it sinful to be rich, but 
to be sordid. 

21. Make all you can, save all you can, 
give all you can. 

22. Without a rich heart wealth is an 
ugly beggar. 

23. A wealthy man who obtains his 
wealth honestly, and uses it rightly, is a 
great blessing to the community. 

24. If thou desire to purchase honor with 



74 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

thy wealth, consider first how that wealth 
became thine; if thy labor got it, let thy 
wisdom keep it; if oppression found it, let 
repentance restore it; if thy parent left it, 
let thy virtue deserve it; so shall thy honor 
be safer, better, and cheaper. 

25. To acquire wealth is difficult; to pre- 
serve it, more difficult; but to spend it wise- 
ly, most difficult of all. 

26. The accumulation of wealth is fol- 
lowed by an increase of care and by an ap- 
petite for more. 

27. The man who possesses wealth pos- 
sesses power, but it is a power to do evil as 
well as good. 

28. It is far more easy to acquire a for- 
tune like a knave than to expend it like a 
gentleman. 

29. There is a vast difference in one's re- 
spect for the man who has made himself 
and the man who has only made his money. 

30. Riches should be admitted into our 
houses, but not into our hearts; we may 
take them into our possession, but not into 
our affections. 



CHAPTER XV. 

TEMPERANCE AND INTEMPER- 
ANCE. 

1. Temperance, by fortifying the mind 
and body, leads to happiness; intemperance, 
by enervating them, ends generally in mis- 
ery. 

2. The luxurious live to eat and drink; 
but the wise and temperate eat and drink 
to live. 

3. Never expect assistance or consolation 
in thy necessities from a drinking compan- 
ion. 

4. Those men who destroy a healthful 
constitution of body by intemperance and 
an irregular life do as manifestly kill them- 
selves as those who hang, or poison, or 
drown themselves. 

5. A man is known by his cup, by his 
purse, and by his temperament. 

6. When wine goes in the secret goes 
out. 



76 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

7. When Satan cannot come himself, he 
sends wine as a messenger. 

8. Wise men mingle innocent mirth with 
their cares as a help either to forget or 
overcome them; but to resort to intoxica- 
tion for the ease of one's mind is to cure 
melancholy with madness. 

9. The smaller the drink, the cooler the 
blood, and the clearer the head, which are 
great benefits in temper and business. 

10. The first draught serveth for health, 
the second for pleasure, the third for shame, 
and the fourth for madness. 

11. Drunkenness is a pair of spectacles 
to see the devil and all his works. 

12. Temperance puts wood on the fire, 
meal in the barrel, flour in the tub, money 
in the purse, credit in the country, con- 
tentment in the house, clothes on the 
bairns, vigor in the body, intelligence in the 
brain, and spirit in the whole constitution. 

13. For drunkenness drink cold water; 
for health, rise early; to be happy, be hon- 
est; to please all, mind your own business. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 77 

14. Drunkenness makes some men fools, 
some beasts, and some devils. 

15. When your companions get drunk 
and fight, take up your hat and wish them 
"Good night." 

16. In the bottle discontent seeks for 
comfort; cowardice for courage; bashful- 
ness for confidence; sadness for joy; and 
all find ruin. 

17. Drunkenness turns a man out of 
himself, and leaves a beast in his room. 

18. Drinking water neither makes a man 
sick, nor in debt, nor his wife a widow. 

19. Every moderate drinker could aban- 
don the intoxicating cup if he would ; every 
inebriate would if he could. 

20. As smoke drives away the bees from 
their hive, so gluttony expelleth all spiritual 
gifts and excellent endowments of the 
mind. 

21. Strong drinks are like wars, making 
cripples of some men, and sending others 
to the grave. 

22. The contrast which exists between 
the abstemious man and the drunkard is 



78 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

this — the former governs his affairs, but the 
affairs of the latter govern him. 

23. The use of strong drinks, to many 
persons, is as pills of arsenic disguised in 
honeycomb ; although palatable at first, it is 
ruin at last. 

24. Of the glutton it is said that the 
kitchen is his shrine, the cook his priest, 
the table his altar, and his belly his god. 

25. The sight of a drunkard is a better 
sermon against that vice than the best that 
was ever preached upon that subject. 

26. Temperance in eating, as well as in 
drinking, is a cardinal virtue; the great ma- 
jority of mankind saturate their death war- 
rants with their cups and dig their graves 
with their teeth. 

27. Let the poor hang up the amulet of 
temperance in their homes. 

28. Wine and youth are fire upon fire. 

29. The Japanese say: "A man takes a 
drink, then the drink takes a drink, and the 
next drink takes the man." 

30. Whisky is a good tning in its place. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 79 

There is nothing like it for preserving a 
man when he is dead. If you want to keep 
a dead man, put him in whisky; if you want 
to kill a live man, put whisky in him. 

31. Choose rather to punish your appe- 
tites than to be punished by them. 

32. An epicure has no sinecure; he is un- 
made, and eventually dished by unmade 
dishes. 

33. He that is a drunkard is qualified for 
all vice. 

34. The youth who stands with a glass 
of liquor in his hand would do well to con- 
sider which he had best throw away — the 
liquor or himself. 

35. Joy, temperance, and repose, slam 
the door on the doctor's nose. 

36. Wine is a turncoat; first, a friend; 
then, a deceiver; then, an enemy. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

SLANDER. 

1. Slanderers are like flies, that pass all 
over a man's good parts to light only on 
his sores. 

2. The most dangerous of wild beasts is 
a slanderer; of tame ones, the flatterer. 

3. They who slander the dead are like 
envious dogs that bark and bite at bones. 

4. Never scald your lips in other people's 
broth. 

5. No one sees the wallet on his own 
back, though every one carries two packs, 
one before, stuffed with the faults of his 
neighbors; the other behind, filled with his 
own. 

6. If you slander a dead man, you stab 
him in the grave. 

7. No one loves to tell a tale of scandal 
but to him that loves to hear it. Learn, 
then, to rebuke and silence the detracting 
tongue by refusing to hear. Never make 






PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 81 

your ear the grave of another's good name. 

8. Some people write, and others talk 
themselves out of their reputation. 

9. There are men of prey as well as 
beasts of prey. 

10. Slander is a vice that strikes a double 
blow, wounding both him that commits, 
and him against whom it is committed. 

11. In the business of tale-bearing a liar 
hath as much credit as any; for slander 
hath more power to persuade than either 
reason or eloquence. 

12. Believe nothing against another but 
on good authority; nor report what may 
hurt another, unless it be a greater hurt 
to another to conceal it. 

13. In ancient days the most celebrated 
precept was, "Know thyself;" in modern 
times it has been supplanted by the more 
fashionable maxim, "Know thy neighbor 
and everything about him." 

14. Never does a man portray his own 
character more vividly than in his manner 
of portraying another. 



82 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

15. Slander issuing from red and beauti- 
ful lips are like the foul and ugly spiders 
crawling from the blushing heart of a rose. 

16. Whoever lends a greedy ear to slan- 
derous reports is either himself of a radi- 
cally bad disposition, or a mere child in 
sense. 

17. If slander be a snake, it is a winged 
one;- it flies as well as creeps. 

18. There would not be so many open 
mouths if there were not so many open 
ears. 

19. If there is any person to whom you 
feel a dislike, that is the person of whom 
you ought never to speak. 

20. No greater damage can be done to 
a man than to damage his character. 

21. Praise is life in death; vituperation 
is death in life. 

22. Great numbers of moderately good 
people think it fine to talk scandal; they 
regard it as a sort of evidence of their own 
goodness. 

23. The tale-bearer and the tale-hearer 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 83 

should be both hanged up, back to back, 
one by the tongue, the other by the ear. 

24. He who attacks another's reputation 
abandons his own. 

25. Scandal-mongers are the spiders of 
society. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

SELF-CONTROL. 

1. Most men spend their lives in the 
service of their passions, instead of em- 
ploying their passions in the service of their 
lives. 

2. Our passions are like convulsive fits, 
which, though they make us stronger for 
the time, leave us weaker ever after. 

3. Human frailty is no excuse for crim- 
inal immorality. 

4. It is a miserable folly to be wise in 
wickedness. 

5. Do nothing to-day that thou wilt re- 
pent to-morrow. 

6. The external misfortunes of life, dis- 
appointments, poverty and sickness, are 
light in comparison of those inward dis- 
tresses of mind occasioned by folly, by pas- 
sion, and by guilt. 

7. In no station, in no period, let us think 
ourselves secure from the dangers which 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 85 

spring from our passions. Every age and 
every station they beset, from youth to 
gray hairs, and from the peasant to the 
prince. 

8. Let pleasure be ever so innocent, the 
excess is always criminal. 

9. No person who has once yielded up 
the government of his mind, and given 
loose rein to his desires and passions, can 
tell how far they may carry him. 

10. The slave of passions is lower than 
the slave of a master. 

11. Passion may not unfitly be termed 
the mob of the man that commits a riot on 
his reason. 

12. He submits to be seen through a mi- 
croscope who suffers himself to be caught 
in a fit of passion. 

13. He is the best accountant who casts 
up correctly the sum of his own errors. 

14. Fly from a tempting object for thy 
safety as thou wouldst fly from an enemy 
for thy life. 

15. He who indulges his sense in any 



86 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

excesses renders himself obnoxious to his 
own reason; and to gratify the brute in 
him, displeases the man and sets his two 
natures at variance. 

1 6. Never open the door to a little vice 
lest a great one enter with it. 

17. What avails the show of external lib- 
erty to one who has lost the government of 
himself? 

18. If we would put a stop to the begin- 
ning of sin, we must begin where sins be- 
gin — in the heart and thoughts. 

1.9. Never adventure on too near an ap- 
proach to what is evil. Familiarize not 
yourself with it, in the slightest instances, 
"without fear. Listen with reverence to 
every reprehension of conscience, and pre- 
serve the most quick and accurate sensi- 
bility to right and wrong. If ever your 
moral impressions begin to decay, and your 
natural abhorrence of guilt to lessen, you 
have ground to dread that the ruin of virtue 
is fast approaching. 

20. Ill qualities are catching as well as 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 87 

diseases; and the mind is at least as much, 
if not a great deal more, liable to infection 
than the body. 

21. A great part of mankind employ 
their first years to make their last misera- 
ble. 

22. He that cannot live well to-day will 
be less qualified to live well to-morrow. 

23. Moderation of passions, judgment in 
counsel, and dexterity in affairs are the 
most eminent parts of wisdom. 

24. No man is master of himself so long 
as he is a slave to anything else. 

25. A man's strongest passion is gen- 
erally his weaker side. 

26. A man must first govern himself ere 
he be fit to govern a family and his family, 
ere he be fit to bear the government in the 
commonwealth. 

27. He that overcomes his passions con- 
quers his greatest enemies. 

28. The eye strays not while under the 
guidance of reason. 

29. Small transgressions become great 



88 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

by frequent repetition, as small expenses 
multiplied insensibly waste a large revenue. 

30. A joyful evening may follow a sor- 
rowful morning. 

31. It is easier to prevent ill habits than 
to break them. 

32. The most precious of all possessions 
is power over ourselves; power to with- 
stand trial, to bear sufferings, to front dan- 
ger; power over pleasure and pain; power 
to follow our convictions, however resisted 
by menace and scorn; the power of calm 
reliance in scenes of darkness and storms. 

33. Our passions, like heavy bodies down 
steep hills, once in motion, move them- 
selves, and know no ground but the bot- 
tom. 

34. Most powerful is he who has himself 
in his own power. 

35. Who to himself is law, no law doth 
need. 

36. Do you want to know the man 
against whom you have most reason to 
guard yourself? Your looking-glass will 
give you a fair likeness of his face. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 89 

37. If a man does not control his pas- 
sions they will control him. 

38. Not he who can extricate himself 
from difficulties is the prudent; but he who 
cautiously bewares not to intricate himself. 

39. One of the very best of all earthly 
possessions is self-possession. 



Jt 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

FALSEHOOD. 

i . Tricks and trickery are the practice of 
fools that have not sense enough to be 
honest. 

2. There are lying looks as well as lying 
words; dissembling smiles, deceiving signs, 
and even a lying silence. 

3. We must not always speak all that we 
know; that were folly. But what a man 
says should be what he thinks; otherwise 
it is knavery. All a man can get by lying 
and dissembling is that he shall not be be- 
lieved when he speaks truth. 

4. Hypocritical piety is double iniquity. 

5. Lying is a vice so very infamous that 
the greatest liars cannot bear it in other 
men. 

6. Never carry two faces under one hood. 

7. He who tells a lie is not sensible how 
great a task he undertakes; for he must be 
forced to invent twenty more to maintain 
that one. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 91 

8. A liar begins with making falsehood 
appear like truth, and ends with making 
truth appear like falsehood. 

9. He who has not a good memory 
should never take upon him the trade of 

lying. 

10. Falsehood has no legs, but a scandal 
has wings. 

n. If a man deceives you once, shame 
on him; if he deceives you twice, shame on 
you. 

12. A liar is subject to two misfortunes; 
neither to believe, nor to be believed. 

13. There was never a hypocrite so dis- 
figured but he had some mark or other to 
be known by. 

14. Not to intend what thou speakest is 
to give thine heart the lie with thy tongue ; 
not to perform what thou promisest is to 
give thy tongue the lie with thine actions. 

15. There is no vice that doth cover a 
man with shame as to be found false and 
perfidious. 

16. There cannot be a greater treachery 
than first to raise a confidence and deceive 
it. 



92 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

17. Although the devil be the father of 
lies, he seems, like other great inventors, 
to have lost much of his reputation by the 
continual improvements that have been 
made upon him. 

18. A hypocrite is under perpetual con- 
straint. And what a torment must it be for 
a man always to appear different from what 
he really is! 

19. A lie is like a snowball; the longer it 
is rolled the larger it is. 

20. Sin has many tools, but a lie is the 
handle which fits them all. 

21. It is better to have a heart without 
words than words without a heart. 

22. White lies are but the ushers to black 
ones. 

23. It is a shameful and unseemly thing 
to think one thing and speak another, but 
how odious to write one thing and think 
another. 

24. You may deceive all the people part 
of the time, and part of the people all the 
time, but not all the people all the time. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

FLATTERY. 

1. It is better to fall among crows than 
flatterers; for those only devour the dead, 
these the living. 

2. Flatter not, nor be thou flattered. 
Follow the dictates of your reason, and you 
are safe. 

3. The coin that is most current among 
mankind is flattery; the only benefit of 
which is that by hearing what we are not 
we may be instructed what we ought to be. 

4. Flattery is a sort of bad money to 
which our vanity gives currency. 

5. Love those who reprove thee, and 
hate those who flatter thee. 

6. It is base to be praised by those who 
are undeserving of praise. 

7. Flattery corrupts both the receiver 
and the giver ; and adulation is not of more 
service to the people than to kings. 

8. Flattery, though a base coin, is the 



94 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

necessary pocket-money at court, where, 
by custom and consent, it has obtained such 
a currency that it is no longer a fraudulent, 
but a legal payment. 

9. Crows devour the eyes of the dead 
when the dead have no longer need of 
them. But flatterers destroy the souls of 
the living and blind their eyes. 

10. Flattery is like friendship in show, 
but not in fruit. 

11. Just praise is only a debt; flattery, a 
present. 

12. Wherever there is flattery, there is a 
fool in the case. 

13. A flatterer is said to be a beast that 
biteth smiling. But it is hard to know 
them from friends, they are so obsequious 
and full of protestations; for as a wolf re- 
sembles a dog, so doth a flatterer a friend. 

14. When flatterers meet the devil goes 
to dinner. 

15. Flattery is like champagne; it soon 
goes to the head. 

16. The wise man is affable, but not adu- 




PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 95 

latory; the low man is adulatory, but not 
affable. 

17. We always love those who admire us, 
but do not always love those we admire. 

18. Do not praise thy friend too much; 
for in speaking of his good qualities thou 
wilt touch upon his bad ones. 

19. Praise no man too liberally before 
his presence, nor censure him too lavishly 
behind his back: the one savors of flattery, 
the other of malice, and both are reprehen- 
sive. 



if if 

H sit 



CHAPTER XX. 

ANGER AND REVENGE. 

1. The passionate are like men standing 
on their heads; they see all things the 
wrong way. 

2. He that will be angry for anything 
will be angry for nothing. 

3. Do you wish not to be angry? be not 
inquisitive. He who inquires what has 
been said of him torments himself. 

4. Nothing is more inconsistent with 
self-possession as violent anger. It over- 
powers reason, confounds our ideas, dis- 
torts the appearance, and blackens the 
color of every object. By the storms which 
it raises within, and by the mischiefs which 
it occasions without, it generally brings on 
the passionate and revengeful man greater 
misery than he can bring on the object of 
his resentment. 

5. To do evil for evil is human corrup- 
tion; to do good for good is civil retribu- 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 97 

tion; to do good for evil is human perfec- 
tion. 

6. If we do not subdue our anger it will 
subdue us. It is the second word that 
makes the quarrel. 

7. Good temper is like a sunny day; it 
sheds its brightness on everything. 

8. By taking revenge a man is but even 
with his enemy; but in passing over it he is 
superior. 

9. An angry man who suppresses his 
passions thinks worse than he speaks; and 
an angry man that will chide speaks worse 
than he thinks. 

10. Better to prevent a quarrel before- 
hand than to revenge it afterward. 

11. A passionate temper renders a man 
unfit for advice, deprives him of his reason, 
robs him of all that is great and noble in 
his nature; it makes him unfit for conver- 
sation, destroys friendship, changes justice 
into cruelty, and turns all order into con- 
fusion. 

12. He who cannot control his anger 
does not possess perfect wisdom. 



98 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

13. Anger begins with folly and ends 
with repentance. 

14. Discord is everywhere a troublesome 
companion; but when it is shut up within 
a family, and happens among relations that 
cannot easily part, it is harder to deal with. 

15. It is better to reprove than to be 
angry secretly. 

16. He that waits for an opportunity of 
acting his revenge watches to do himself a 
mischief. \ 

17. He that cannot forgive others breaks 
the bridge over which he must pass him- 
self; for every man has need to be for- 
given. 

18. A vindictive temper is not only un- 
easy to others, but to them that have it. 

19. Two things a man should never be 
angry at: what he can help, and what he 
cannot help. 

20. He that would be angry and sin not 
must not be angry with anything but sin. 

21. Keep yourself from the anger of a 
great man, from the tumult of a mob, from 
a man of ill-fame, from a widow that has 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 99 

been thrice married, from a wind that 
comes in at a hole, and from a reconciled 
enemy. 

22. Anger may glance into the breast of 
a wise man, but rests only in the bosom of 
fools. 

23. To be angry is to revenge the faults 
of others upon ourselves. 

24. Angry and choleric men are as un- 
grateful and unsociable as thunder and 
lightning, being in themselves all storm 
and tempests; but quiet and easy natures 
are like fair weather, welcome to all, and 
acceptable to all men. 

25. When angry count ten before you 
speak; if very angry, a hundred. 

26. An angry man is again angry with 
himself when he returns to reason. 

27. A man can as easily be intoxicated 
with anger as with wine; both produce a 
temporary insanity, and during the parox- 
ysm he should be avoided as a madman. 

28. To be angry about trifles is mean 
and childish; to rage and be furious is 
brutish, and to maintain perpetual wrath 



100 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

is akin to the practice and temper of devils ; 
but to prevent and suppress rising resent- 
ment is wise and glorious, is manly and 
divine. 

29. Consider how much more you always 
suffer from your anger and grief than from 
those very things for which you are angry 
and grieved. 

30. An angry man opens his mouth and 
shuts up his eyes. 

31. He who can suppress a moment's 
anger may prevent a day of sorrow. 

32. The fire you kindle for your enemy 
often burns yourself more than him. 

33. He that studies revenge keepeth his 
own wounds green, which otherwise would 
heal and do well. 

34. Heat not a furnace for your foe so 
hot that it do singe thyself. 



dfr 



CHAPTER XXI. 

CIVILITY. 

i. Fine sense and exalted sense are not 
half so useful as common sense. 

2. A man endowed with great perfec- 
tions, without good breeding, is like one 
who has his pockets full of gold, but al- 
ways wants change for his ordinary occa- 
sions. 

3. Some are so very studious of learning 
what was done by the ancients that they 
know not how to live with the moderns. 

4. The first step to a good name is a 
good life, and the next is good behavior. 

5. If a civil word or two will render a 
man happy, he must be a wretch who will 
not give them to his fellow-being. Such a 
disposition is like lighting another man's 
candle by one's own, which loses none of 
its brilliancy by what the other gains. 

6. Deference is the most delicate, the 
most indirect, and the most elegant of all 
compliments. 



102 PROVERBIAL, WISDOM. 

7. It is a sin against hospitality to open 
the doors and shut up the countenance. 

8. There are braying men in the world 
as well as braying asses; for what is loud 
and senseless talking, huffing, and swear- 
ing any other than a more fashionable way 
of braying? 

9. Good manners are the small coin of 
virtue. 

10. The scholar without good breeding 
is a pedant; the philosopher, a cynic; the 
soldier, a brute; and every man disagree- 
able. 

11. Politeness is a real kindness kindly 
expressed. 

12. A jest, told in a grave manner, has 
the better effect; but you extinguish the 
appetite of laughter in others if you pre- 
vent them by your own. 

13. A jest is no argument, nor a loud 
laughter a demonstration. 

14. The only way to be amiable is to be 
affable. 

15. Let not a man be merry among 
mourners, nor mourn among the merry. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 103 

1 6. He that makes himself the common 
jester of a company has but just wit enough 
to be a fool. 

17. Make yourself agreeable as much as 
possible to all; for there is no person so 
contemptible but that it may be in his pow- 
er to be your best friend or worst enemy. 

18. Excessive laughter denotes folly, and 
he who exposes his teeth lessens his re- 
spect. 

19. Gentle reply to scurrilous language 
is the most severe revenge. 

20. Respect to age and kindness to chil- 
dren are among the tests of an amiable dis- 
position. Undeviating civility to those of 
inferior station and courtesy to all are the 
emanations of a well-educated mind and 
finely balanced feelings. 

21. Disparage and depreciate no one; an 
insect has feelings, and an atom a shadow. 

12. Politeness is like an air-cushion; 
there may be nothing in it, but it eases our 
jolts wonderfully. 

23. Coolness and absence of heat and 



104 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

haste indicate fine qualities. A gentleman 
makes not noise; a lady is serene. 

24. He who sedulously attends, pointed- 
ly asks, cooly answers, and ceases when he 
has no more to say, is in possession of some 
of the best requisites of man. 

25. The great business of man is to im- 
prove his mind and govern his manners. 

26. Our conversation should be such 
that youth may therein find improvement, 
women modesty, the aged respect, and all 
men civility. 

27. To one you find full of questions it 
is best to make no answers at all. 

28. Nothing is more silly than an ill- 
timed laugh. Many are seen to laugh at 
their own imperfections in another. 

29. A man has no more right to say an 
uncivil thing than to act one; no more 
right to say a rude thing to another than 
to knock him down. 

30. The best rules to form a young man 
are to talk little, to hear much, to reflect 
alone what has passed in company, to dis- 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 105 

trust one's own opinion, and to value oth- 
ers that deserve it. 

31. Our principal point of good-breed- 
ing is to suit our behavior to the three sev- 
eral degrees of men — our superiors, our 
equals, and those below us. 

32. Complaisance pleases all; adorns wit; 
renders humor agreeable; augments friend- 
ship; redoubles love; and, united with jus- 
tice and generosity, becomes the secret 
chain of the society of mankind. 

33. We cannot always oblige, but we can 
always speak obligingly. 

34. Good manner and good morals are 
sworn friends and firm allies. 

35. What is becoming is honorable, and 
what is honorable is becoming. 

36. The great secret of life is never to be 
in the way of others. 

37. The manner of a vulgar man has 
freedom without ease, and the manner of a 
gentleman has ease without freedom. 

38. Civility costs nothing, and is worth 
everything. 

39. If you wish to appear agreeable in 



106 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

society, you must consent to be taught 
many things which you already know. 

40. A person's address in society should 
be like the address on a letter, plain, neat 
and without too many flourishes. 

41. Dress is much, address more. 

42. Behavior is a mirror in which every 
one displays his image. 

43. There can be no greater rudeness 
than to interrupt another in the current of 
his discourse. 

44. Fine manners are a stronger bond 
than a beautiful face. The former binds; 
the latter attracts. 




CHAPTER XXII. 

TRUTH AND SINCERITY. 

1. Truth is the foundation of all knowl- 
edge, and the cement of all societies. 

2. Sincerity is to speak as we think; be- 
lieve as we perform; act as we profess; per- 
form as we promise, and really be what we 
would seem and appear to be. 

3. It is necessary to the happiness of 
man that he be mentally faithful to him- 
self. Infidelity does not consist in believ- 
ing, or in disbelieving; it consists in pro- 
fessing to believe what he does not believe. 

4. There is a kind of a magic in truth, 
which forcibly carries the mind along with 
it. Men readily embrace the dictates of 
sincere reason. 

5. Truth may be expressed without art 
or affectation; but a lie stands in need of 
both. 

6. Sincerity and truth form the basis of 
every virtue. 



108 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

7. Plain truth must have plain words; 
she is innocent, and accounts it no shame 
to be seen naked; whereas the hypocrite or 
double-dealer shelters and hides himself in 
ambiguities and reserves. 

8. Truth establishes all things, falsehood 
overthrows them. 

9. Truth is always consistent with itself, 
and needs nothing to help it out; it is al- 
ways near at hand and sits upon our lips, 
and is ready to drop out before we are 
aware; whereas a lie is troublesome, and 
sets a man's invention on the rack, and one 
needs a great many more of the same kind 
to make it good. 

10. One of the sublimest things in the 
world is plain truth. 

11. It is not enough that we swallow 
trrih. We must feed upon it, as insects do 
on the leaf, till the whole heart be colored 
by its qualities, and show its food in every 
fibre. 

j 2. It would be an unspeakable advant- 
age, both to the public and private, if men 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 109 

would consider that great truth, that no 
man is wise or safe but he that is honest. 

13. He that finds truth, without loving 
her, is like a bat; which, though it have 
eyes to discern that there is a sun, yet hath 
so evil eyes that it cannot delight in the 
sun. 

14. Nature loves truth so well that it 
hardiy ever admits of flourishing. Con- 
ceit is to nature what paint is to beauty; it 
is not only needless, but impairs what it 
would improve. 

is. Nothing is more noble, nothing 
more venerable, than truth. Faithfulness 
and truth are the most sacred excellencies 
and endowments of the human mind. 

16. The greatest homage we can pay to 
trr.th is to use it. 

i/. Every violation of truth is a stab at 
the health of human society. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

PRIDE AND ARROGANCE. 

1. To be proud of knowledge is to be 
blind in the light; to be proud of virtue is 
to poison yourself with antidote; to be 
proud of authority is to make your rise 
your downfall. 

2. Proud men never have friends, neither 
in prosperity, because they know nobody; 
nor in adversity, because then nobody 
knows them. 

3. A proud man is always hard to be 
pleased, because he hath too great expecta- 
tions from others. 

4. As liberality makes friends of enemies, 
so pride makes enemies of friends. 

5. Pride, like the magnet, constantly 
points to one object, self; but unlike the 
magnet, it has no attractive pole, but at all 
points repels. 

6. He who praises himself, will soon find 
some one to laugh at him. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. Ill 

7. Four persons are intolerable: A poor 
man who is proud; a rich man who is a 
lir-.r; a old man who is incontinent, and a 
leader who behaves haughtily toward a 
community for whom he has done nothing. 

8. He who thinks his place below him, 
will certainly be below his place. 

9. Vain-glorious men are the scorn of 
the wise men, the admiration of fools, the 
idols of parasites, and the slaves of their 
own vaunts. 

10. A sound head, an honest heart, and 
an humble spirit are the three best guides 
through time and to eternity. 

11. It is always a sign of poverty of 
mind where men are ever aiming to ap- 
pear great; for they who are really great 
never seem to know it. 

12. Arrogance is a kingdom without a 
crown. 

13. It is not the height to which men are 
advanced that makes them giddy; it is the 
looking down with contempt upon those 
below them. 



112 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

14. He who swells in prosperity will 
shrink in adversity. 

15. Arrogance is a weed that grows 
mostly on a dunghill. 

16. Pride is increased by ignorance; 
those assume most who know the least. 

17. A man inflated with pride is equal 
to an idolator. 

18. Pride and ill-nature will be hated in 
spite of all the wealth and greatness in the 
woild. Civility is always safe; but pride 
creates us enemies. 

19. To live above our station shows a 
proud heart; and to live under it discovers 
a narrow soul. 

20. Likeness begets love, yet proud men 
ha-«: one another. 

21. Of all human actions, pride seldom- 
est obtains its end; for, aiming at honor and 
reputation, it reaps contempt and derision. 

22. Whoever gives way to pride, if he 
is a wise man his wisdom departs from him. 

23. Vain-glory blossoms, but never bears 
fruit. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 113 

24. Other vices chose to be in the dark; 
only pride loves always to be seen in the 
light. 

25. The best way to humble a proud 
man is to take no notice of him. 

26. If a man has a right to be proud of 
anything it is of a good action done as it 
ought to be without any base interest 
lurking at the bottom of it. 

2;. He who gives himself airs of im- 
portance, exhibits the credentials of im- 
potence. 

28. Poor is the man who can boast of 
nothing more than gold; and equally so 
mu.vt the woman be who can boast of noth- 
ing more than her beauty. 

29. He who seems not to himself more 
th: n he is, is more than he seems. 

30. Usually the greatest boasters are the 
smallest workers. The deep rivers pay a 
larger tribute to the sea than shallow 
brooks, and yet empty themselves with less 
noise. 

31. As in a pair of bellows there is a 
forced breath without life, so in those that 



114 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

are puffed up with the wind of ostentation 
there may be charitable words without 
works. 

32. When a proud man forbids you his 
presence, he awkwardly confers a favor 
upon you. 

33. He that adores himself hath a poor 
subject for his idolatry. 

34. Dignity and pride are of a too near 
relationship for intermarriage. 

35. The infinitely little have a pride in- 
finitely great. 

36. There are four kinds of pride of 
which we should beware: Race pride, pride 
in our ancestors; face pride, pride in our 
beauty; place pride, pride in our position; 
grace pride, pride in our religion. 

$j. He who hardens his heart with pride 
softens his brains with the same. 

38. Pride that dines on vanity, sups on 
contempt. 

39. The mind of a proud man is like a 
mushroom, which starts up in a night. His 
business is first to forget himself, and then 
his friends. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 115 

40. Say nothing of yourself, either good, 
bad or indifferent; nothing good, for that 
is vanity; nothing bad, for that is affecta- 
tion; nothing indifferent, for that is silly. 

41. A wise man has dignity without 
pride; a fool has pride without dignity. 

42. He who knows himself best, ex- 
altcth himself least. 




CHAPTER XXIV. 

GRATITUDE. 

1. Gratitude is a duty none can be ex- 
cused from, because it is always at our dis- 
posal. 

2. Without good nature and gratitude 
man had as well live in the wilderness. 

3. He that calls a man ungrateful sums 
up all the evil that a man can be guilty 
of. 

4. Gratitude is the memory of the heart. 

5. He that receives a benefit without be- 
ing thankful robs the giver of his just re- 
ward. 

6. He that conceals a benefit is to be 
held but one degree from denying it. 

7. To do good to the ungrateful is to 
throw rose-water into the sea. 

8. Not to return one good office for an- 
other is inhuman; but to return evil for 
good is diabolical. There are too many 
even of this sort, who, the more they owe, 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 117 

the more they hate. There is nothing 
more dangerous than to oblige these peo- 
ple; for when they are conscious of not 
paying the debt, they wish the creditor out 
of the way. 

9. The earth produces nothing worse 
than an ungrateful man. 

10. It is better to be called over-liberal 
than ungrateful; the first, good men will 
applaud; the latter, even bad men will con- 
demn. 

11. Liberality and thankfulness are the 
bonds of concord. 

12. Friendship is the medicine for all 
misfortunes, but ingratitude dries up the 
fountain of all goodness. 

13. He who receives a good turn should 
never forget it; he who does one should 
never remember it. 

14. It is the character of an unworthy 
man to write injuries on marble and bene- 
fits in dust. 

15. Ingratitude makes the receiver 
worse, but the benefactor better. 



118 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

16. One ungrateful man does an injury 
to all who stand in need of aid. 

17. A grateful mind is not only the 
greatest of all virtues, but the parent of all 
other virtues. 

18. An ungrateful man is like a hog 
under a tree eating acorns, but never look- 
ing up to see where they come from. 

19. To repay by a return equivalent is 
not in every one's power; but thanks are 
a tribute payable by the poorest. 






CHAPTER XXV. 

LEARNING AND WISDOM. 

i. Learning is wealth to the poor, an 
honor to the rich, an aid to the young, and 
a support and comfort to the aged. 

2. Learning is an ornament in pros- 
perity, a refuge in adversity, an entertain- 
ment at all times. It cheers in solitude, 
and gives moderation and wisdom in all 
circumstances. 

3. If a man empties his purse into his 
head, no man can take it away from him. 
An investment in knowledge always pays 
the best interest. 

4. An industrious and virtuous education 
of children is a better inheritance for them 
than a great estate. 

5. Wisdom is to the mind what health is 
to the body. 

6. Our chief wisdom consists in knowing 
our follies and faults, that we may correct 
them. 



120 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

7. A man's wisdom is his best friend; 
folly, his worst enemy. 

8. Man without wisdom is like a house 
without a foundation. 

9. Wisdom is the delight of the wise; 
folly, of the fool. 

10. The fool has his understanding in his 
mouth; but the wise man has his mouth 
filled with understanding. 

11. A man is wise as long as he seeks 
wisdom; but when he imagines that he has 
perfectly attained it, he is a fool. 

12. We read of a philosopher who de- 
clared of himself that the first year he en- 
tered upon the study of philosophy he knew 
everything; the second year he knew some- 
thing; but the third, nothing. The more 
he studied, the more he declined in the 
opinion of his own knowledge, and saw 
more of the shortness of his understanding. 

13. All countries are the wise man's 
home. 

14. Wisdom is a tree that grows in the 
heart, and its fruit is in the tongue. 

15. Think only according to the strength 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 121 

of thy understanding, and investigate ac- 
cording to thy penetration; more is not re- 
quired of thee. 

1 6. Honors, monuments, and all the 
works of vanity and ambition are demol- 
ished and destroyed by time; but the repu- 
tation of wisdom is venerable to posterity. 

17. Wisdom is better without inheritance 
than an inheritance without wisdom. 

18. Education is a better safeguard of 
liberty than a standing army. If we re- 
trench the wages of the schoolmaster, we 
must raise those of the recruiting sergeant. 

19. One part of knowledge consists in 
being ignorant of such things as are not 
worthy to be known. 

20. Knowledge is a treasure, but prac- 
tice is the key to it. 

21. Learning is like mercury, one of the 
most powerful and excellent things in the 
world in skilful hands ; in unskilful, the most 
mischievous. 

22. The true order of learning should be, 
first, what is necessary; second, what is 
useful; and third, what is ornamental. To 



122 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

reverse this arrangement is like beginning 
to build at the top of the edifice. 

23. It is better to be unborn than un- 
taught, for ignorance is the root of mis- 
fortune. 

24. Wisdom sought after in old age fades 
like characters traced in sand, whilst that 
acquired in youth may endure like char- 
acters engraved in stone. 

25. He never dies whom wisdom keeps 
alive. 

26. It happens to men truly learned, as 
to ears of corn; they shoot up and raise 
their heads high while they are empty; 
when full and swelled with grain, they be- 
gin to flag and droop. 

2J. He who acquires knowledge without 
imparting it to others is like a myrtle in 
the desert, where there is no one to enjoy it. 

28. Learn a little here and a little there, 
and you will increase knowledge. 

29. A mind full of piety and knowledge 
is always rich, it is a bank that never fails; 
it yields a perpetual dividend of happiness. 

30. The wise man has his foibles as well 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 123 

as the fool. But the difference between 
them is that the foibles of the one are 
known to himself and concealed from the 
world ,and the foibles of the other are 
known to the world and concealed from 
himself. 

31. Very few men are wise by their own 
counsel, or learned by their own teaching; 
for he that was only taught by himself had 
a fool for his master. 

32. A college education shows a man 
how little other people know. 

33. All wisdom consists in this, not to 
think that we know what we do not know. 

34. It is the highest advantage for one 
that is wise not to seem to be wise. 

35. A man of learning who makes no use 
of what he knows is like a cloud which 
gives no rain. 

36. There are three classes of people in 
the world. The first learn from their own 
experience — these are wise; the second 
learn from the experience of others — these 
are the happy; the third neither learn from 



124 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

their own experience nor the experience of 
others — these are fools. 

37. We should not ask who is the most 
learned, but who is the best learned. 

38. It is easy to learn something about 
everything, but difficult to learn everything 
about anything. 

39. Some will never learn anything, be- 
cause they understand everything too soon. 

40. A man cannot leave a better legacy 
to the world than a well-educated family. 

41. Beauty is the wisdom of women, and 
wisdom is the beauty of men. 

42. The more you practice what you 
know, the more shall you know what to 
practice. 

43. There is nothing more imprudent 
than excessive prudence. 




CHAPTER XXVI. 

AVARICE AND COVETOUSNESS. 

1. Poverty wants some, luxury many, 
avarice all things. 

2. It is a much easier task to dig metal 
out of its native mine than to get it out of 
the covetous man's coffer. Death only has 
the key of the miser's chest. 

3. The avaricious man is like barren, 
sandy ground, which sucks in the rain and 
dew with greediness and thirst; but yields 
no fruitful herbs or plants to the inhabit- 
ants. 

4. He hath most that coveteth least. A 
wise man wants but little, because he de- 
sires not much. 

5. A wise man will desire no more than 
what he can get justly, use soberly, dis- 
tribute cheerfully, and leave contentedly. 

6. He is a slave to the greatest slave who 
serveth none but himself. 



126 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

7. If money be not thy servant, it will be 
thy master. The covetous man cannot so 
properly be said to possess wealth, as that 
may be said to possess him. 

8. He who requests a favor of the ava- 
ricious is like him who attempts to catch 
fish in the desert. 

9. Some men are called sagacious merely 
on account of their avarice ; whereas a child 
can clench its fist the moment it is born. 

10. The covetous person lives as if the 
world were made altogether for him, and 
not he for the world; to take everything 
and part with nothing. 

11. The birds of the air despise a miser. 

12. Some men are as covetous as if they 
were to live forever, and others as profuse 
as if they were to die the next morning. 

13. A miser grows rich by seeming poor; 
an extravagant man grows poor by seem- 
ing rich. 

14. The prodigal robs his heir, the miser 
robs himself. The middle way is justice to 
ourselves and others. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 127 

15. Dignity and riches consist in the 
abandonment of covetousness. 

16. He who makes an idol of his interest 
makes a martyr of his integrity. 

17. "It is a great blessing to possess 
what one wishes," said some one to an an- 
cient philosopher, who replied: "It is a 
greater blessing still not to desire what one 
does not possess." 

18. A man's desires always disappoint 
him; for though he meets with something 
that gives him satisfaction, yet it never 
thoroughly answers his expectations. 

19. From our eagerness to grasp, we 
strangle and destroy pleasures. 

20. The people will worship a calf if it 
be a golden one. 

21. The only gratification a covetous 
man gives his neighbors is to let them see 
that he himself is as little better for what 
he has as they are. 

22. Four great enemies to peace inhabit 
with us, viz., avarice, ambition, envy, and 
pride. If those enemies were to be ban- 



128 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

ished, we should infallibly enjoy perpetual 
peace. 

23. A man that keeps riches and enjoys 
them not is like an ass that carries gold and 
eats thistles. 

24. An envious man waxes lean with the 
fatness of his neighbor. 

25. No estate can make him rich that has 
a poor heart. 

26. If we did but know how little some 
enjoy of the great things that they possess 
there would not be such envy in the world. 

27. The difference between the philan- 
thropist and the miser is this: the former 
lives to give, but the latter dies to give. 

28. The heart is a small thing, but de- 
sireth great matters. It is not sufficient for 
a kite's dinner, yet the whole world is not 
sufficient for it. 

29. Avarice is always poor, but poor by 
her own fault. 

30. The wealth of covetous persons is 
like the sun after he is set — delights none. 

31. He who lives only to benefit himself 
confers on the world a favor when he dies. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 129 

32. Avarice is like a graveyard; it takes 
all that it can get, and gives nothing back. 

33. An avaricious man is a great lover 
of generosity — in everybody except him- 
self. 

34. Covetous persons are like the 
sponges, which greedily drink in water, but 
return very little until they are squeezed. 

35. What madness it is for a man to 
starve himself to enrich his heir, and to 
turn a friend into an enemy! For his joy 
at your death will be proportioned to what 
you leave him. 

36. He who gives a trifle meanly is 
meaner than the trifle. 

37. He who is not liberal with what he 
has does but deceive himself when he 
thinks he. would be liberal if he had more. 

38. It matters not how wrinkled the face 
may be, so long it is not wrinkled by 
selfishness. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

VANITY AND PLEASURE. 

i. Young men when they are once dyed 
in pleasure and vanity will scarcely take 
any other color. 

2. The vanity of human life is like a 
river, constantly passing away and yet con- 
stantly coming on. 

3. Pleasures unduly taken enervate the 
soul, make fools of the wise, and cowards 
of the brave. A libertine life is not a life 
of liberty. 

4. Excessive pleasures, while they flatter 
a man, sting him to death. 

5. As dreams are the fancies of those 
that sleep, so fancies are but the dreams of 
men awake. 

6. Nothing is more ridiculous than to be 
serious about trifles, and to be trifling 
about serious matters. 

7. Do not hurt yourselves or others by 
the pursuit of pleasure. Consult your whole 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 131 

nature. Consider yourselves not only as 
sensitive, but as rational beings; not only 
as rational, but social; not only as social, 
but immortal. 

8. Of all our infirmities, vanity is the 
dearest to us. A man will starve his other 
vices to keep that alive. 

9. The roses of pleasure seldom last long 
enough to adorn the brow of him who 
plucks them; and they are the only roses 
which do not retain their sweetness after 
they have lost their beauty. 

10. He that feasts his body with ban- 
quets and delicate fare, and starves his soul 
for want of spiritual food, is like him that 
feasts his slave and starves his wife. 

11. The epicure puts his purse in his 
belly; the miser his belly into his purse. 

12. The temperate man's pleasures are 
durable, because they are regular; and all 
his life is calm and serene, because it is in- 
nocent. 

13. To expose one's self to great dan- 
gers for trivial advantages is to fish with 



132 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

a golden hook, where more may be lost 
than gained. 

14. When necessity ends, desire and cur- 
iosity begin; and no sooner are we sup- 
plied with everything nature can demand 
than we sit down to contrive artificial ap- 
petites. 

15. The seeds of repentance are sown in 
youth by pleasure; but the harvest is reaped 
in age by pain. 

16. The best throw with the dice is to 
throw them away. 

17. When the idea of undue pleasure 
strikes your imagination, make a just com- 
putation between the duration of the pleas- 
ure and that of the repentance that is likely 
to follow it. 

18. Every man has just as much vanity 
as he wants understanding. 

19. To make pleasures pleasant shorten 
them. 

20. He who can, at all times, sacrifice 
pleasure to duty approaches sublimity. 

21. Pleasure is to women what the sun 
is to the flower; if moderately enjoyed, it 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 133 

beautifies; if immoderately, deteriorates 
and destroys. 

22. Pleasure's coach is virtue's grave. 

23. Pleasures become bitter as soon as 
they become abused. 

24. Vanity is a confounded donkey, ever 
apt to put his head between his legs and 
chuck us over. 

25. If most married women possessed as 
much prudence as they do vanity, we would 
find many husbands far happier. 

26. To be a man's own fool is bad 
enough; but the vain man is everybody's. 

27. It is well to possess pleasure, but not 
to be possessed by it. 

28. Pleasure is like a cordial; a little of 
it is not injurious, but too much destroys. 

29. Indulging in dangerous pleasure is 
licking honey from a knife and cutting the 
tongue with the edge. 

30. Whenever we drink too deeply of 
pleasure we find a sediment at the bottom 
which pollutes and embitters that we rel- 
ished at first. 

31. Dwell not too long upon sports; for 



134 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

as they refresh a man that is weary, so they 
weary a man that is refreshed. 

32. Vanity is the quicksand of reason. 

33. She neglects her heart who studies 
the glass. 

34. He repents on thorns that sleeps on 
roses. 

35. We first make our habits, and then 
our habits make us. 

36. The body of a sensualist is the coffin 
of a dead soul. 




MISCELLANIES. 

" Proverbs are the literature of reason, or the 
statement of absolute truth without qualifica- 
tion. — R. W. Emerson. 



MISCELLANIES. 

i. Four things are grievously empty: a 
head without brains, a wit without judg- 
ment, a heart without honesty, and a purse 
without money. 

2. There are three persons you should 
never deceive: your physician, your con- 
fessor, and your lawyer. 

3. Censure is the tax a man pays to the 
public for being eminent. 

4. Never live in hope or expectation 
while your arms are folded. 

5. All is but lip-wisdom which wants ex- 
perience. 

6. Fashion is, for the most part, nothing 
but the ostentation of riches. 

7. Fools with bookish knowledge are 
children with edged weapons; they hurt 
themselves, and put others in pain. The 
half-learned is more dangerous than the 
simpleton. 

8. He that thinks of many things thinks 



138 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

of nothing, and he that would go several 
ways stands still. 

9. In prosperity prepare for a change; 
in adversity hope for one. 

10. He that blows the coals in quarrels 
he has nothing to do with has no right to 
complain if the sparks fly in his face. 

11. Reason cannot show itself more rea- 
sonable than to cease reasoning on things 
above reason. 

12. A good fame is better than a good 
face. 

13. If marriages are made in heaven, 
many have but a few friends there. 

14. He who trusts all things to chance 
makes a lottery of his life. 

15. If the best man's faults were written 
on his forehead it would only make him 
pull his hat over his eyes. 

16. Lawmakers should not be law- 
breakers. 

17. Men may blush to hear what they 
were not ashamed to act. 

18. Never sound the trumpet of your 
own praise. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 139 

19. A good jest in time of misfortune is 
food and drink. It is strength to the arm, 
digestion to the stomach, and courage to 
the heart. A prosperous man can afford 
to be melancholy; but if the miserable are 
so, they are worse than dead — it is sure to 
kill them. 

20. The stone that lieth not in thy way 
need not offend thee. 

21. There are no gains without pains; 
then plow deep while sluggards sleep. 

22. Have pity upon the honorable man 
that is despised, upon the rich that is im- 
poverished, and upon the wise man who 
hath fallen among fools. 

23. The more women look in their 
glasses, the less they look at their houses. 

24. He that scoffs at the crooked had 
need to go very upright himself. 

25. It is as natural for women to pride 
themselves in fine clothes as it is for a pea- 
cock to spread his tail. 

26. To make an empire durable the mag- 
istrates must obey the laws, and the people 
the magistrates. 



140 PROVERBIAL, WISDOM. 

27. It is not your posterity, but your ac- 
tions, that will perpetuate your memory. 

28. Creditors have better memories than 
debtors; and creditors are a superstitious 
sect, great observers of set days and times. 

29. Do not all you can; spend not all you 
have; believe not all you hear, and tell not 
all you know. 

30. Though you are commanded to love 
your enemy, you are not bound to put a 
sword in his hand. 

31. Keep out of a hasty man's way for a 
while; out of the sullen man's, all the days 
of your life. 

32. You will never be thought to talk too 
much when you talk well; and always too 
much when you speak ill. 

33. Too much asseveration is a good 
ground for suspicion. 

34. You will never have a friend if you 
must have one without fault. 

35. The intention ought to obey the 
laws, not the laws the intention. 

36. Of all the pests the greatest pest is 
superstition. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 141 

37. Deliberate long of what thou canst 
do but once. 

38. The hypocrite has honey in his 
mouth, words of milk, gall in his heart, and 
fraud in his deeds. 

39. He that is not handsome at twenty, 
strong at thirty, wise at forty, and rich at 
fifty will never be handsome, strong, wise 
or rich. 

40. The gambler, the more skilful he is 
in his art, the more wicked he is. 

41. If you would be known and not 
know, vegetate in a village; if you would 
know and not be known, live in a city. 

42. The traveler with empty pockets will 
sing in the presence of the robber. 

43. Those who cross the sea change their 
clime, but not their nature. 

44. Men generally are willing to believe 
what they wish to be true. 

45. The magistrates are the ministers of 
the law, the judges are the interpreters of 
the law; we all, in fine, are the servants of 
the law that we may be free. 



142 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

46. You will never repent of being pa- 
tient and sober. 

47. Wilful faults have no excuse, and de- 
serve no pardon. 

48. Nothing is more easy than to deceive 
one's self, as our affections are subtle per- 
suaders. 

49. Many come to bring their clothes to 
church rather than themselves. 

50. No cord or cable can draw so forci- 
bly or bind so fast as love can do with only 
a single thread. 

51. He that wants hope is the poorest 
man living. 

52. Some are unwisely liberal, and more 
delight to give presents than to pay debts. 

53. Many get into a dispute well that 
cannot get out well. 

54. He that makes a question where 
there is no doubt must make an answer 
where there is no reason. 

55. He is doubly' sinful who congratu- 
lates a successful knave. 

56. There are four good mothers, of 
whom are often born four unhappy daugh- 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 143 

ters : Truth begets hatred, prosperity pride, 
security danger, and familiarity contempt. 

57. He that will sell his fame will also 
sell the public interest. 

58. What maintains one vice would 
bring up two children. 

59. A fool may ask more questions in 
an hour than a wise man can answer in 
seven years. 

60. The future destiny of the child is al- 
ways the work of the mother. 

61. A good presence is a letter of recom- 
mendation. 

62. The way to gain a good reputation 
is to endeavor to be what you desire to 
appear. 

63. Our greatest glory is not in never 
falling, but in rising every time we fall. 

64. Fame is the perfume of heroic deeds. 

65. Have not to do with any man in 
his passion; for men are not, like iron, to be 
wrought upon when they are hot. 

66. All fools are not knaves; but all 
knaves are fools. 



144 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

6y. One month in the school of affliction 
will teach us more wisdom than the grave 
precepts of Aristotle in seven years. 

68. According to your purse govern 
your mouth. 

69. Fame, like a river, is narrowest at its 
source and broadest afar off. 

70. Whether young or old, think it not 
too soon or too late to turn over the leaves 
of your past life; and consider what you 
would do if what you have done were to 
do again. 

71. It is a miserable thing to live in sus- 
pense; it is the life of a spider. 

72. The gifts of the mind are able to 
cover the defects of the body; but the per- 
fections of the body cannot hide the im- 
perfections of the mind. 

73. A man that doth the best he can 
doth all that he should do. 

74. Mercy to the evil proves cruelty to 
the innocent. 

75. Many old camels carry the skins of 
the young ones to the market. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 145 

j6. Youth is the opportunity to do some- 
thing and to become somebody. 

yy. To mourn without measure is folly; 
not to mourn at all, insensibility. 

78. Love thy neighbor, but pull not 
down thy hedge. 

79. He that can read and meditate will 
not find his evenings long or his life tedi- 
ous. 

80. He that is not sensible of his loss has 
lost nothing. 

81. Keep aloof from quarrels; be neither 
a witness nor a party. 

82. Honor thy physician before thou 
hast need of him. 

83. As worms are generated in a stag- 
nant pool, so are evil thoughts in the mind 
of him who is unemployed. 

84. Beware of him who regards not his 
reputation. 

85. Do not the lion in thy house; be not 
tyrannical and cruel toward thy inferiors. 

86. It is better that a man's own works 
than that another man's words should 
praise him. 



146 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

87. It is with narrow-souled people as 
with narrow-necked bottles: the less they 
have in them the more noise they make in 
pouring it out. 

88. Men possessing small souls are gen- 
erally the authors of great evil. 

89. Would you have others to befriend 
you, be friendly; would you have them to 
respect you, respect yourself. 

90. One doth the blame, another bears 
the shame. 

91. It is vain to use words when deeds 
are expected. 

92. Kindle not a fire that you cannot ex- 
tinguish. 

93. He that spends without regard shall 
want without pity. 

94. A person with a bad name is already 
half hanged. 

95. Experience without learning is better 
than learning without experience. 

96. Consideration is the parent of wis- 
dom. 

97. Reprove thy friend privately; com- 
mend him publicly. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 147 

98. A man without reason is a beast in 
season. 

99. When you go to dance take heed 
whom you take by the hand. 

100. The life of life is society; of society, 
freedom; of freedom, the direct and mod- 
erate use of it. 

101. A man gets no thanks for what he 
loseth at play. 

102. Vice is most dangerous when it 
puts on the garb of virtue. 

103. He who has no mind to trade with 
the devil should be so wise as to keep away 
from his shop. 

104. Light cares speak; great ones are 
dumb. 

105. People seldom improve when they 
have no other model but themselves to 
copy after. 

106. Never reason from what you do not 
know. If you do, you will soon believe 
what is utterly against reason. 

107. To endeavor to work upon the vul- 
gar with fine sense is like attempting to 
hew blocks with a razor. 



148 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

1 08. Of all the dark catalogues of sins 
there is not one more vile and execrable 
than profaneness. 

109. Less of your courtesy and more of 
your purse. 

no. He that buys what he does not want 
will soon want what he cannot buy. 
in. The overcurious are not overwise. 

112. There are two things in which men, 
in other things wise enough, do usually 
miscarry — in putting off the making of 
their wills, and their repentance. 

113. Try to be something in the world, 
and you will be something. 

114. We promise according to our hopes, 
but perform according to our fears. 

115. One good head is better than a 
great many hands. 

116. Trust him little who praises all, him 
less who censures all, and him least who 
is indifferent about all. 

117. He that maketh others fear him 
hath reason to fear them. 

118. It is as great a point of wisdom to 
hide ignorance as to discover knowledge. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 149 

119. Live in peace with all men; never- 
theless have but one counsellor. 

120. He who shuts his eyes to some 
things saves his sight; but he who winks 
at all things is a fool. 

121. He that builds his house with the 
wealth of others is collecting stones for his 
own grave. 

122. Young men's construction is de- 
struction, and old men's destruction is con- 
struction. 

123. He who injured thee was stronger 
or weaker; if weaker, spare him; if strong- 
er, spare yourself. 

124. Beauty is the first present nature 
gives to women, and the first it takes away. 

125. There is no place where weeds do 
not grow, and there is no heart where 
errors are not to be found. 

126. A learned fool is more foolish than 
an ignorant fool. 

127. Of all thieves fools are the worst; 
they rob you of time and temper. 

128. It would be easier to endow a fool 



150 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

with intellect than to persuade him that 
he had none. 

129. Fear is the tax that conscience pays 
to guilt. 

130. A fool may have his cap embroid- 
ered with gold, but it is a fool's cap still. 

131. The dew of compassion is a tear. 

132. Quick believers need broad shoul- 
ders. 

133. Love is like the measles; all the 
worse when it comes late in life. 

134. To be ignorant of one's ignorance 
is the malady of ignorance. 

134. Hypocrisy has become a fashion- 
able vice, and all fashionable vices pass for 
virtue. 

135. Idleness is only the refuge of weak 
minds and the holiday of fools. 

136. Home is the seminary of all other 
institutions. 

137. Jealousy is the sister of love, as the 
devil is the brother of angels. 

138. The ignorant hath an eagle's wings 
and an owl's eyes. 

139. Love reasons without reason. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 151 

140. Many are destined to reason wrong- 
ly; others not to reason at all, and others 
to persecute those who do reason. 

141. No man can be wise on an empty 
stomach. 

142. He that thinks he can afford to be 
negligent is not far from being poor. 

143. Trifles make perfection, but perfec- 
tion is no trifle. 

144. The religion of humanity is love. 

145. Some men, like pictures, are fitter 
for a corner than a full light. 

146. The childhood shows the man as 
morning shows the day. 

147. Beauty is worse than wine; it in- 
toxicates both the holder and the beiiolder. 

148. Affectation is a greater enemy to 
the face than the smallpox. 

149. An excuse is worse and more terri- 
ble than a lie; for an excuse is a lie guarded. 

150. The difference between a rich man 
and a poor man is this: the former eats 
when he pleases, and the latter when he 
can get it. 



152 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

151. "Impossible" is a word to be found 
in the dictionary of fools. 

152. It is better to have nothing to do 
than to be doing nothing. 

153. A jealous man sleeps dog-sleep. 

1 54. Letters which are warmly sealed are 
often but coldly opened. 

155. Never risk a joke, even the least of- 
fensive in its nature and the most common, 
with a person who is not well bred and 
possessed of sense to comprehend it. 

156. The most difficult thing in life is to 
know yourself. 

157. Impatience dries the blood sooner 
than age and sorrow. 

158. The first and worst of all frauds is 
to cheat oneself. All sin is easy after that. 

159. Pity those whom nature abuses, but 
never those who abuse nature. 

160. The patient can oftener do without 
the doctor than the doctor without the pa- 
tient. 

161. To him nothing is possible who is 
always dreaming of his past impossibilities. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 153 

162. It is a great happiness to be praised 
by them that are most praiseworthy. 

163. The more you speak of yourself, the 
more you are likely to lie. 

164. Every man is a volume if you know 
how to read him. 

165. The worst thing an old man can be 
is a lover. 

166. If thou art a master, be sometimes 
blind; if a servant, sometimes deaf. 

167. Put not your trust in money, but 
put your money in trust. 

168. Fools rush in where angels fear to 
tread. 

169. He who will not reason is a bigot; 
he who cannot is a fool, and he who dares 
not is a slave. 

170. How many people live on the repu- 
tation of the reputation they might have 
made! 

171. A broad hat does not always cover 
a wise head. 

172. A nobody is just the person to find 
fault with everybody. 



154 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

173. A fool never adores himself so much 
as when he has committed some great folly. 

174. Those who have done nothing in 
the world are the very ones who imagine 
they can do everything. 

175. A woman's heart, like the moon, is 
always changing; but there is always a man 
in it. 

176. Self-preservation is the first law of 
nature, but too many in the world act as 
though it were the only one. 

177. It is far better to have a red face 
than a black heart. 

178. Fall not a victim to the face before 
you know what the body is. 

i7g. A cheerful face is nearly as good for 
an invalid as healthy weather. 

180. He that lives upon hopes will die 
fasting. 

181. Luck is ever waiting for something 
to turn up. Labor, with keen eyes and 
strong will, will turn up something. 

182. Luck is the idol of the idle. 

183. Beware, as long as you live, of judg- 
ing men by their outward appearance. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM, 155 

184. Every reply is an answer, but every 
answer is not a reply. 

185. Deliberately consider whether a 
thing be practicable; if it be not practica- 
ble, do not attempt it. 

186. They are never alone who are ac- 
companied by noble thoughts. 

187. A hearty greeting does not always 
denote friendship. 

188. Affront your friend in sport and 
you will lose him in earnest. 

189. Middle age should protect young 
age and revere old age. 

190. Every man, however wise, requires 
the advice of some sagacious friend in 
the affairs of life. 

191. He alone is wise who can adapt 
himself to every condition of life. 

192. This is now truly the golden age; 
highest honors are bought with gold; even 
love is purchased with gold. 

193. Be wise worldly, but not worldly 
wise. 

194. The way not to be disappointed in 
our expectations is not to expect too much. 



156 PROVERBIAL, WISDOM. 

195. Leisure for men of business, and 
business for men of leisure, would cure 
many complaints. 

196. He that chooseth an apple by the 
skin and a man by the face may be de- 
ceived in the one and overshot by the other. 

197. There is nothing more unbecoming 
than an old busybody. 

198. It is hard for the face to conceal the 
thoughts of the heart, the true character of 
the soul. 

199. Religious contention is the devil's 
harvest. 

200. They that do nothing are in the 
readiest way to do that which is worse than 
nothing. 

201. A single conversation across the 
table with a wise man is worth a month's 
study of books. 

202. Better a blush on the face than a 
blot on the heart. 

203. Remember that what you believe 
will depend very much upon what you are. 

204. There is one person that is wiser 
than anybody, and that is everybody. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 157. 

205. Never say you know a man till you 
have divided an inheritance with him. 

205. Action may not always bring hap- 
piness; but there is no happiness without 
action. 

206. Take time for all things. Great 
haste makes great waste. 

207. He that is good for making excuses 
is seldom good for anything else. 

208. A bitter and perplexed "What shall 
I do?" is worse to man than worse neces- 
sity. 

209. The man who builds and lacks 
wherewith to pay provides a home from 
which to run away. 

210. Eat to please thyself, but dress to 
please others. 

211. If honor be your clothing, the suit 
will last a lifetime; but if clothing be your 
honor, it will soon be worn threadbare. 

212. The best lightning rod for your 
protection is your own spine. 

213. There is a foolish corner even in 
the brain of the sage. 



158 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

214. Young men think old men fools, 
and old men know young men to be so. 

215. A happy family is an earlier heaven. 

216. It is a matter of indifference to a 
fool whether you laugh at him or with him. 

217. To Adam, Paradise was home; and 
among his descendants home is a paradise. 

218. Experience is the most eloquent of 
preachers, but she never has a large con- 
gregation. 

219. For three things there is no rem- 
edy; poverty associated with laziness, sick- 
ness coupled with old age, and enmity 
mixed with envy. 

220. He is the happiest, be he king or 
peasant, who finds peace in his home. 

221. He who has not forgiven an enemy 
has never yet tasted one of the most sub- 
lime enjoyments of life. 

222. Mankind consists of two men; one 
who takes heed, the other of whom heed 
is taken. 

223. A fool may be known by six things : 
anger, without cause; speech, without 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 159 

profit; change, without progress; inquiry, 
without object; putting trust in a stranger; 
and mistaking foes for friends. 

224. Happy is he who is admonished 
through others; unhappy if others are ad- 
monished through him. 

225. Slumber not in the tents of your 
fathers. The world is advancing. Advance 
with it. 

226. Waste not, want not; willful waste 
makes woeful want. 

227. Three things too much and three 
things too little are pernicious to man; to 
speak much and know little; to spend 
much and have little ; to presume much and 
be worth little. 

228. If nobody loves you, be sure it is 
your own fault. 

229. Take heed of an ox before, and an 
ass behind, and a knave on all sides. 

230. "Luck" is a very good word if you 
put a "P" before it. 

231. "Better late than never" is not so 
good a maxim as "Better never late." 



160 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

232. When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; 
when health is lost, something is lost; when 
character is lost, all is lost. 

233. Whoever makes a father's heart to 
bleed shall have a child that will revenge 
the deed. 

234. There are three kinds of people in 
the world: the wills, the won'ts, and the 
can'ts. The first accomplish everything; 
the second oppose everything; the third fail 
in everything. 

235. A man in his own opinion deserves 
more than he receives; in the opinion of 
others, he receives more than he deserves. 

236. One great difference between a wise 
man and a fool is the former only wishes 
for what he may possibly obtain; the latter 
desires impossibilities. 

237. He is but the counterfeit of a man 
who has not the life of a man. 

238. Many men are angry with them that 
tell them of their faults, when they should 
be angry only with the faults that are told 
them. 



PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 161 

239. A woman's head is always influ- 
enced by her heart; but a man's heart is 
always influenced by his head. 

240. There are three classes into which 
all old women are divided: first, that dear 
old soul; second, that old woman; and 
third, that old witch. 

241. Lawless are they who make their 
wills their law. 

242. It is better to hope and be disap- 
pointed than to be entirely hopeless. 

243. Those who change their religion 
through selfish motives are generally such 
as have no religion to change. 

244. Let there be a place for everything 
and everything in its place; also a time for 
everything and everything at its proper 
time. 

245. He is a fool who thinks that another 
does not think. 

246. When vice is united to fortune she 
changes her name. 

247. Short visits, like short accounts, 
make long friends. 



162 PROVERBIAL WISDOM. 

248. Get work ! Be sure it is better than 
what you work to get. 

249. Upright and do right make all 
right. 



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